4 Ex-Fairfield Officials Plead Not Guilty In Fill Pile Case

FAIRFIELD, CT — Several former Fairfield officials pleaded not guilty Tuesday after being charged last year in connection with the town’s ongoing fill pile scandal.

The four men each entered a plea and requested a jury trial in an arraignment process overseen by Judge Kevin Russo, according to court officials. Neither the defendants nor their attorneys were required to appear in person.

The defendants arraigned Tuesday are among five former town employees accused of conspiracy and illegally disposing of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls — or PCBs — during the 2018 construction of a berm at the fill pile, according to police, who brought charges against the group last fall.

Former human resources director Emmet Hibson, former conservation director Brian Carey, former public works director Joe Michelangelo and former public works superintendent Scott Bartlett entered pleas Tuesday.

“I’m in the process of gathering information to be used in the defense of my client in these matters,” said Michelangelo’s attorney, Eugene Riccio, in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.

Bartlett’s lawyer, Fred Paoletti, declined to comment when reached Tuesday. Attorneys representing Hibson and Carey did not respond to messages left Tuesday.

Carey, Michelangelo and Bartlett also face a separate set of charges brought in late 2020 in connection with accusations that they allowed contaminated material dredged from Owen Fish Pond to be dumped at the pile while the berm was being built, according to police. The trio pleaded not guilty to those charges Tuesday as well.

Robert J. Grabarek, an environmental contractor hired by the town, is set to appear in court Thursday for the first time since he was charged in November alongside Hibson, Carey, Michelangelo and Bartlett.

Additionally, in summer 2019, Michelangelo, Bartlett and former town contractor Jason Julian were arrested and accused of participating in a conspiracy to illegally run a dump for contaminated material at the fill pile and allow fraudulent billing, court records have shown. That case is working its way through the pretrial process.

Also, Fairfield's former chief fiscal officer, Bob Mayer, was arrested a year ago and accused of stealing a file related to the fill pile case and two folders on the Penfield Pavilion building project.

The town hired Julian's company, Julian Development, in 2013 to operate the pile and reduce the amount of unused project material on the site by 40,000 cubic yards. But over the next three years, the pile tripled in size, and days before the agreement with Julian Development was set to end, contaminants were discovered on the property. Police opened an investigation into activity at the pile in 2017.