Robert Grabarek Sentenced In Fairfield Fill Pile Case

BRIDGEPORT, CT ? Robert Grabarek, the environmental consultant and owner of Osprey Environmental Engineering LLC, will avoid prison time in connection with his guilty plea in the Fairfield fill pile case, but he must pay about $30,000 in restitution for town employees who seek medical evaluations for working among toxic materials.

Grabarek's sentence was handed down Wednesday in Bridgeport Superior Court by Judge Robin Pavia, and in addition to the one-year prison term that was suspended, Grabarek's state license in environmental work will be suspended for two years while he is on probation.

During Wednesday's court hearing, Fairfield First Selectman Bill Gerber spoke about the pain Grabarek is alleged to have caused through his involvement in the scandal.

"He abused the trust of the residents who are affected by the site," Gerber said. "His actions resulted in significant environmental damage in our sensitive coastal areas that lingers to this day and will take years to clean up."

Also during the hearing, about a dozen employees from the Fairfield Department of Public Works, clad in reflective yellow vests and jackets, sat in the courtroom, and some of their victim impact statements were read into the record by DPW Land Surveyor Scott Leaman.

"I trusted his reports," Leaman said of Grabarek, who claimed that working with the toxic material in the fill pile, and the protective berm the workers built, was safe. "I don't know what levels of PCBs I was exposed to."

To this day, the dozens of DPW employees who worked at the various sites where contaminated soil and fill were illegally dumped have not been medically tested to determine what, if any, toxic elements may be in their bodies. One of the complaints from the workers is that Grabarek is alleged to have dissuaded the employees from using hazmat suits and protective equipment while working at and around the fill pile, because he said it would alarm residents.

The workers said that they feel betrayed, not just by Grabarek, but also by multiple town officials dating back nearly 10 years.

During Wednesday's hearing, Grabarek and his attorney, Jeremiah Donovan, portrayed the environmental consultant as not responsible for all the toxic materials that were illegally dumped throughout Fairfield, and said that as it relates to employees not receiving medical testing, that is a town problem, not his.

"There have been gross misrepresentations in the pre-sentencing report of my responsibilities in this," Grabarek said. "There are historic problems with the site that I had nothing to do with."

Grabarek is the second-to-last defendant in the sprawling fill pile case to be sentenced. On March 18, former Fairfield public works director Joe Michelangelo is scheduled for sentencing in Milford Superior Court. Michelangelo pleaded guilty in 2022 to a host of charges, and testified against the other defendants in the case.

In a separate but related development, Grabarek and the town have settled a civil case related to the fill pile scandal, but the terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.