There was a nice sounding lady that said my wife's store did not have the proper paperwork for a sign in her window.
The facts are that Greenwich Police Officer DiPretro and three other officers came to my wives store and stayed about an hour just before I was getting to call the Greenwich Matters show hosted by Sam Romeo on WGCH. I had posted on this blog that I intended to complain about the poor performance of the police in Byram.
Police Officer DiPietro made some comments that indicated that his and the other officers presence was in retaliation, because I had exercised my right to Free Speech on this blog and was going to reiterate my complaints about Byram Police Officers on the Radio.
Officer DiPretro illegally searched non-public backrooms of the store and I had to call 911 three times to end the illegal search and get Officer Dipretro out of my wife's store.
Later, Officer DiPretro angrily began writing up a ticket for my wives store. A Greenwich Police Sargent Moran ordered DiPretro to withdraw the ticket.
The out of control Officer Dipretro argued with Sargent Moran about the ticket.
And I would just like to mention that it is only alleged that my wife needed this paper work or did not have this paper work. Actually, it is very hard to respond to the allegation, because my has not been charged with anything or issued any ticket at all.
Moreover, what Greenwich Police Officials are failing to mention is that my wife has three letters from Greenwich Town Officials giving her permission for the signage.
What happened in my wife's store on December 27th was not about a sign. It was about trying to intimidate and silence a Greenwich Police Department Critic.
If this had been about a sign, there would not have been a problem.
Greenwich Police Officer DiPretro would have written a ticket for the alleged sign violation.
Then we would have either paid the ticket or went to see a judge who would have determined if there was a violation.
There would have been no illegal searches, no 911 calls, no police misconduct complaints, no improper police investigations, no threats of arrest or harassment of my wife or myself.
There would be no threats to my landlord and no illegal demands that I resign from my Greenwich Legislative seat.
This was not about a sign, this about silencing a police critic.
In fact in early December, Greenwich Police Officer Dipetro gave us a ticket as we were loading merchandise in our car. He even made similar comments as he issued the ticket.
We took Officer DiPretro's ticket to a hearing and spoke with an independent person and Officer's DiPetro's ticket was thrown out.
There were no illegal searches, no 911 calls, no police misconduct complaints, no improper police investigations, no threats of arrest or harassment of my wife or myself. There were no threats to my landlord and no illegal demands that I resign from my Greenwich Legislative seat.
Because Officer DiPretro, wrote a ticket and left.
However, on December 27th, Officer DiPretro did not come in the store with a bunch of police officers and conduct an illegal search just before I was going to go on WGCH and complain about him.
This is why for two weeks I have tried to meet with First Selectman Peter Tesei to explain these facts and to get rid of malicious police rumors spread about my dear wife and I.
Like the false, malicious, libelous, Slanderous and untrue lie that I am not a resident of Greenwich and do not live in RTM District 4.
The facts are that I live in a residential unit that has a nonconforming use exemption. The unit is in a residential building in a residential zone of Greenwich.
My tenancy is month to month and the CL&P Bill and other utility bills are addressed to Apartment 1 Front. The CL&P Bill has came that was for over 30 years, I am told.
The former owner of the building lived in the space and operated a business long before any current zoning regulations applied to the property.
Moreover, If there is a question about the certificate of occupancy (CO) there is nothing I can do about it. Only the landlord can apply for or fix the CO. The tenant has no say in the buildings CO what-so-ever.
Now the Town Of Greenwich has two options.
Number one, they can arbitrarily throw me in the street and Connecticut State law says the Town must find me housing in Town and this will expose the Town Of Greenwich to a civil suit from my wife and I.
Number two, the Town can cite my Landlord and let an independent housing court judge decide if the Town is right or if my landlord is right. If my landlord is wrong then the housing court judge will come to a fair and equitable solution between my landlord and I. The judge might tell me leave in 24 hours or 24 days. Who Knows?
If the housing judge says my landlord is right, then the Town Of Greenwich would have the right to appeal the judges ruling.
Solution number two is the most fair, because it puts any decision in the hands of an independent judge in Norwalk who will not be pressured by local politics or the police department.
No one is going to be stupid enough to tell the judge if this Byram Legislator does not resign his seat, we are going to retaliate against him and his landlord.
