Scott Bartlett Gets New Charges, Other Fill Pile Arrests Expected

FAIRFIELD, CT — A former Fairfield official was arrested Wednesday, according to the Connecticut Post. The arrest was Scott Bartlett’s third since August 2019, when he and another public works administrator were charged in connection with a contamination and corruption scandal that shocked and angered residents.

Bartlett, the town’s longtime superintendent of public works, was charged Wednesday with repeatedly breaking state environmental laws, among them improper disposal of solid waste, according to the Post, which reported Bartlett was released on a promise to appear in court Dec. 4.

An attempt to contact Bartlett's lawyer, Fred Paoletti, was unsuccessful Wednesday evening.

Former Fairfield public works director Joe Michelangelo — already charged with larceny, forgery, conspiracy and environmental crimes — is expected Friday to surrender on new charges, his attorney, Eugene Riccio, confirmed. Riccio declined further comment.

As many as six people — including another former town employee — may face charges in the case, the Post reported, citing sources.

Bartlett, Michelangelo and former town contractor Jason Julian are accused of participating in a conspiracy to illegally operate a dump for contaminated material at the town fill pile and to allow fraudulent billing, court records have shown.

The trio was arrested in August, and has since pleaded not guilty and requested jury trials. Bartlett was also charged in February after he was accused of stealing thousands of dollars from a mentally disabled woman whose affairs he was appointed to manage following the death of her father.

Michelangelo and Bartlett were fired from their town jobs in the weeks after their arrests.

Former town chief fiscal officer Bob Mayer was terminated in January and is accused of stealing a file related to the fill pile case and two folders on the Penfield Pavilion building project.

Fairfield hired Julian Development in 2013 to operate the fill 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 more than doubled in size, and days before the agreement was set to end, contaminants were discovered on the property.

After conservation officials said the transportation and dumping of contaminated material could have violated state or federal law, police opened an investigation in 2017, which resulted in the arrests.

Around the same time that Bartlett, Julian and Michelangelo were charged, asbestos at a local park was reported to police in connection with the use of town fill. Since August, more than 80 areas in Fairfield have been tested for contamination.

The vast majority of those sites have been deemed safe, but some locations were found to contain asbestos, arsenic and other contaminants, and are undergoing costly remediation. Earlier this week, the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance approved $1.48 million in bonds to pay for investigation and cleanup at several sites connected to the pile.