Post by Shuftin on Jan 6, 2007 16:02:42 GMT -5
January 6, 2007
By JENNIFER MEDINA
NEW HAVEN, Jan. 5 — One night in October, a police officer in Madison, a small coastal Connecticut town, called in to dispatchers, telling them that he noticed a door to a restaurant had been left ajar. Not to worry, he said, he would check it out.
In went the officer, Joseph R. Gambardella, though he did not use the usual protocol to search for an intruder, like reaching for his weapon or calling for backup, according to a state police officer who investigated the matter. Rather, Officer Gambardella, toting a large trash bag, went right for the freezer.
Officer Gambardella rummaged through a few plastic tubs, according to the state police officer’s affidavit, removing a few packages of lobster meat.
And out he went, closing the door behind him.
Little did he know that security cameras installed at the restaurant to monitor employees showed him emerging from the freezer with his trash bag weighed down, apparently with a hefty supply of lobster meat.
Although the affidavit from the state trooper includes a detailed account of what was captured on the security tape, Officer Gambardella’s lawyer said on Thursday that his client planned to plead not guilty to charges including two counts of burglary and two counts of larceny. The officer is accused of taking 21 bags of lobster meat worth $44 each, and two bags of shrimp, which cost $18.60 apiece.
“The tape seems damaging,” the officer’s lawyer, Hugh F. Keefe, said this week. “Of course, we have a defense.”
But neither Mr. Keefe nor Officer Gambardella, 48, who was accompanied to court this week by his pregnant wife, Kathleen, gave any indication what that defense might be.
Officer Gambardella, a 15-year veteran of the Madison Police Department who lives in Guilford, was disciplined once before for “conduct unbecoming,” according to the town’s police chief, Paul D. Jakubson. “But that’s usually nothing serious,” Chief Jakubson said, adding that he had not received any complaints about Officer Gambardella — who earned more than $127,000 last year by working overtime shifts — in the last decade.
Lenny and Joe’s Fish Tale along Route 1 in Madison, 20 miles south of New Haven, is not a place for high-end dining. The lobster special, at $12.99, comes with French fries and coleslaw.
Joseph Schreck, one of the owners, called the police after he noticed that a few bags of the crustaceans had disappeared in August and October. And he watched the tape from the hidden camera, thinking perhaps an employee had stolen the food. In both instances, the restaurant’s alarm had been activated just after midnight.
Instead, the camera captured Officer Gambardella heading for the cooler and, according to the affidavit, emerging with an “expanded and weighed-down” trash bag; then, he appeared to be talking to the alarm security company, using a white towel to cover the receiver.
Mr. Schreck is not exactly thrilled with the publicity surrounding his fast-food seafood place, which has served clams, lobster and shrimp along the shore since 1979. And he declined to elaborate on the case and charges against Officer Gambardella, saying he did not “want to encourage people to write about this.”
“It’s an awkward situation all around,” Mr. Schreck said in a brief telephone conversation. “There’s nothing for us to be gained by talking about it.”
Officer Gambardella has been on paid leave since October, pending the completion of a criminal investigation.
On Thursday, Mr. Keefe, the lawyer, said that Officer Gambardella was not the first person to be accused of stealing shellfish.
“Have I ever represented anybody who was accused of taking lobster meat and shrimp theft before? The answer is yes,” he said. “Lobster theft is very common. We’re on the shore. There are a lot of lobster pots around here.”
www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/nyregion/06lobster.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
By JENNIFER MEDINA
NEW HAVEN, Jan. 5 — One night in October, a police officer in Madison, a small coastal Connecticut town, called in to dispatchers, telling them that he noticed a door to a restaurant had been left ajar. Not to worry, he said, he would check it out.
In went the officer, Joseph R. Gambardella, though he did not use the usual protocol to search for an intruder, like reaching for his weapon or calling for backup, according to a state police officer who investigated the matter. Rather, Officer Gambardella, toting a large trash bag, went right for the freezer.
Officer Gambardella rummaged through a few plastic tubs, according to the state police officer’s affidavit, removing a few packages of lobster meat.
And out he went, closing the door behind him.
Little did he know that security cameras installed at the restaurant to monitor employees showed him emerging from the freezer with his trash bag weighed down, apparently with a hefty supply of lobster meat.
Although the affidavit from the state trooper includes a detailed account of what was captured on the security tape, Officer Gambardella’s lawyer said on Thursday that his client planned to plead not guilty to charges including two counts of burglary and two counts of larceny. The officer is accused of taking 21 bags of lobster meat worth $44 each, and two bags of shrimp, which cost $18.60 apiece.
“The tape seems damaging,” the officer’s lawyer, Hugh F. Keefe, said this week. “Of course, we have a defense.”
But neither Mr. Keefe nor Officer Gambardella, 48, who was accompanied to court this week by his pregnant wife, Kathleen, gave any indication what that defense might be.
Officer Gambardella, a 15-year veteran of the Madison Police Department who lives in Guilford, was disciplined once before for “conduct unbecoming,” according to the town’s police chief, Paul D. Jakubson. “But that’s usually nothing serious,” Chief Jakubson said, adding that he had not received any complaints about Officer Gambardella — who earned more than $127,000 last year by working overtime shifts — in the last decade.
Lenny and Joe’s Fish Tale along Route 1 in Madison, 20 miles south of New Haven, is not a place for high-end dining. The lobster special, at $12.99, comes with French fries and coleslaw.
Joseph Schreck, one of the owners, called the police after he noticed that a few bags of the crustaceans had disappeared in August and October. And he watched the tape from the hidden camera, thinking perhaps an employee had stolen the food. In both instances, the restaurant’s alarm had been activated just after midnight.
Instead, the camera captured Officer Gambardella heading for the cooler and, according to the affidavit, emerging with an “expanded and weighed-down” trash bag; then, he appeared to be talking to the alarm security company, using a white towel to cover the receiver.
Mr. Schreck is not exactly thrilled with the publicity surrounding his fast-food seafood place, which has served clams, lobster and shrimp along the shore since 1979. And he declined to elaborate on the case and charges against Officer Gambardella, saying he did not “want to encourage people to write about this.”
“It’s an awkward situation all around,” Mr. Schreck said in a brief telephone conversation. “There’s nothing for us to be gained by talking about it.”
Officer Gambardella has been on paid leave since October, pending the completion of a criminal investigation.
On Thursday, Mr. Keefe, the lawyer, said that Officer Gambardella was not the first person to be accused of stealing shellfish.
“Have I ever represented anybody who was accused of taking lobster meat and shrimp theft before? The answer is yes,” he said. “Lobster theft is very common. We’re on the shore. There are a lot of lobster pots around here.”
www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/nyregion/06lobster.html?_r=1&oref=slogin