Hill Pawn Shop Busted Fencing $6M

For nearly a decade, a secondhand store owner in the Hill resold $6 million in stolen items brought to him by opioid users, sweating and sick from withdrawal. Now, he’ll spend the next six years of his life in federal prison.

In a Hartford courtroom on Monday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Michael P. Shea gave George Connelly, Jr., the owner of Ace Amusements, a 78-month sentence for transporting stolen property across state lines.

Connelly must also forfeit an $86,200 interest in a house he owns on Tuttle Drive, $10,300 in cash that was seized from his bank accounts, and $13,100 in cash seized from Ace Amusements in January 2016. That will pay nominal restitution of $4,045 to Lowe’s, $2,548 to Home Depot, and $1,700 to Target.

Through the Kimberly Avenue shop that he inherited from his father, who’d run a similar scheme in the early 1990s, Connelly acted as the ​“fence,” buying then reselling stolen goods.

According to the evidence presented at a trial this spring, shoplifters suffering from the aches and nausea of withdrawal stole property from Home Depot, Target, CVS and Lowe’s, and sold it to Connelly’s store for one-third of the retail value. Connelly stocked his shelves with the in-the-box items and put the rest for sale online.

From 2007 to 2016, the stolen items amounted to at least $6.03 million, the evidence at trial showed.

After six days of testimony, including from some of the shoplifters, a jury found Connelly guilty of two counts of interstate transport of stolen property and one count of conspiracy of interstate transport of stolen property. They let him off on one additional count.

Prosecutors called it ​“one of the largest organized retail crime operations in the New Haven area.” Connelly ​“exploited the sickness of people who suffered from opioid addiction for his own gain,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys John T. Pierpont, Jr., wrote in a memo.

Judge Shea ultimately decided to go just under prosecutors’ recommendation of a seven-year minimum. Currently out on bond, after his sister put up her house to raise the $100,000, Connelly has been ordered to report to prison on Dec. 3, 2018.

One of the resellers, who was found guilty at trial, will be sentenced Tuesday, and the shop’s co-owner, who took a guilty plea, will be sentenced next month.

Par For Pawn Shops?

Connelly knew exactly what he was buying, prosecutors argued, when people came in with razors, power drills, vacuum cleaners, electric-toothbrush heads, pet products and over-the-counter medication that was still in its original packaging.

During the trial, Connelly protested that he wasn’t ​“in the business per se of buying stolen property.” He argued he was simply a licensed secondhand retailer who didn’t realize he was at the center of an organized retail crime ring.

“Pawn shops and the like have operated in a gray area of the law since long before the undersigned was born. They are allowed to flourish at the whim of local authorities,” Leonard Michael Crone, the defense attorney, wrote in a memo. ​“He inherited this business from his father and inherited all that went along with it. He is far from a sophisticated criminal.”

Connelly’s sister said that her father had groomed the boy to run Ace Amusements as soon as he finished high school. The dad screamed at him, fired him and threw him out of the house, forcing the young man to sleep in his car some nights.

She added that Connelly’s best friend from childhood was killed by a driver who, high on drugs, ran a stop sign and fled the scene. ​“Because of this, George has never touched a drug and has always tried to help his friends who have had problems with drugs.”

Law enforcement said that Connelly often referred to the individuals that brought him stolen goods as ​“junkies,” and he fronted them money for opioids, telling them to ​“get right” and writing down how much they owed in a ledger of ​“boosters.”

At trial, three drug users said they would borrow money from Connelly in the morning, buy heroin and then start stealing. Connelly kept the store open seven days a week.

Connelly also tried to cover up the misconduct, prosecutors said, by entering false information into an online database that helps law enforcement keep track of stolen property at pawn shops.

Sometimes this was tough work, prosecutors pointed out because Connelly had to remove security devices and peel off labels. When spider-wrapping was removed, an alarm often sounded, which Connelly smashed with a hammer, according to testimony at trial.

Connelly got caught once before. During a 2010 investigation, state and local police arrested him for larceny. He pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine, by which a defendant professes innocence while choosing not to contest the charges. He explained that he didn’t think it mattered if an item was stolen.

“Pretty much they told us that as long as we get an ID, we’re covered by what we buy,” Connelly said during the 2011 sentencing.

But after that, he didn’t stop fencing; he was much more careful, prosecutors said. If a shoplifter came into Ace Amusements with a spider-wrapped product, he’d kick them out; if they returned a few minutes later with the same product, unwrapped, he’d buy it from them, they added.

Exploiting Addiction?

Prosecutors sought a tougher sentence for Connelly because they argued that he consciously put drug users at serious risk of overdosing. But a public-health expert argued that New Haven can’t prosecute its way out of the opioid crisis.

At the height of the fencing operation, those suffering from opioid use disorder sometimes came to Ace Amusements multiple times each day. One person testified at trial that between 75 to 100 boosters were involved in the scam.

“For nine years, the defendant incentivized these people to steal by providing a place for them to sell stolen goods for cash,” Pierpont, the federal prosecutor, wrote. ​“Worse, he facilitated their addictions by providing them a means … to feed their addictions.”

For instance, one man with more than a dozen convictions on his record, mostly for shoplifting, said he’d unload stolen goods at Ace Amusements every day except when he was incarcerated.

Sean Amendola testified that he’d been using heroin for nearly two decades. He’d known Connelly all that time, had told him about his addiction, and considered him a friend. Connelly often loaned him money in the mornings, when Amendola was in withdrawal. Amendola testified that he would return later in the day with a large haul of stolen items, sometimes stopping by three times before the shop closed.

“Connelly, just to make money, preyed on Amendola’s addiction,” Pierpont wrote, and he ​“helped it maintain a hold on Amendola for nearly a decade.”

One expert said that the stolen-property ring pointed to the need for Connecticut to tackle drug addiction as an issue for public health professionals, rather than the criminal justice system.

“Let’s be frank about it: [Use disorders are] the only disease that we’ve criminalized,” Robert Heimer, a professor of epidemiology and pharmacology, told the Independent. ​“If someone on the street were feeling horrible symptoms from insulin shock, they’d be treated as a victim with a medical problem and medically managed. We don’t do that for addiction.”

Heimer argued that the state needs to broaden access to methadone or buprenorphine. Doctors agree that these ​“medication-assisted treatments” are the most effective way to wean off heroin, fentanyl, and prescription painkillers, even though local clinics who offer that care have come under fire for crime at their doorsteps.

Heimer said the lack of instant access and the stigma of continued reliance on drugs often keep those suffering from opioid use disorder from seeking treatment.

“The fundamental problem is there’s not enough effective treatment for this disease,” he said. ​“Much of this problem would go away if someone didn’t have to steal to get money to buy drugs — if our system were altered enough for someone to feel comfortable walking into an emergency room or urgent-care climic and start receiving treatment.”