Ty Bird is going to be charged with fleecing millions of dollars from the common charge accounts of Success Village residents when he served as president of the 1,000-unit co-op split between Bridgeport and Stratford.
The larger question will he enter a guilty plea to mitigate prison exposure or reject the federal government’s plea offer, roll the dice, face grand jury indictment and a trial?
“We’ve been having productive discussions with the government on that and have some decisions to make,” Bird’s lawyer, Darnell Crosland, told Dan Tepfer of CT Examiner on Thursday.
Three Bird associates have been charged and are cooperating with federal authorities in a case with mountain ranges of evidence including banking records, falsified invoices, witness statements, cash payments, emails, text messages.
Crosland represented former State Senator Dennis Bradley who was convicted in March by a federal jury for violating election laws stemming from his 2018 race for the state legislature. He is scheduled for sentencing in December while also facing state charges on absentee fraud connected to his brother Mark’s failed race for probate judge.
Dennis Bradley also served as a lawyer for Success Village when Bird was in charge. Dennis Bradley’s law license has been suspended by the state following his federal conviction.
More on this from Tepfer:
Two years after he was ousted by a judge as president of the state’s largest privately-owned low-income housing complex on the Bridgeport-Stratford line, Bird is facing a federal grand jury investigation in New Haven.
Three men who federal prosecutors said conspired with Bird — Richard Messina, of Trumbull, Carmine Gentile, of Freehold, N.J., and Charles Pitcher, of Trumbull — have already pleaded guilty in the case and face numerous years behind bars and millions of dollars in restitution.
Federal court documents related to the arrests of Messina, Gentile and Pitcher do not name Bird. However, they refer to an unnamed suspect as “Person 1” and state that the individual played a major role in the theft.
Prior to their guilty pleas Messina, Gentile and Pitcher were given a choice by prosecutors to either face indictment by a grand jury or waive the indictment and plead guilty with a plea agreement. Crosland would not comment on whether Bird has been given that choice.
According to federal prosecutors, between approximately June 2022 and September 2024, Messina, Gentile and Pitcher, engaged in an embezzlement conspiracy through vendors, including Umbrella Mechanical LLC, a New Jersey-registered company, owned by Gentile and RJM Mechanical, a Connecticut-registered Company, owned by Messina.
Full story here
Lennie,whe the third person plead quilty, the article mentioned an unamed “person 2”. Byrd was listed as “person 1”. You once mentioned that Clownell represented Byrd at some point. I think Darnell was deeply involved and may just be person 2 and a person 3 will be mentioned. The federal judge and prosecuter should removed Clounell as Byrd’s attorney. Back up a little here Lennie and look into this. I’ll keep posted. I think Clownell and the Bradley’s were involved. Indictment shall name persons 1, 2, 3, 4. The Clown & Bradley Circus. Tickets 🎟 available only on OIB.
Correction: The Clownell & Bradley Circus.
“We’ve been having productive discussions with the government on that and have some decisions to make,” Bird’s lawyer, Darnell Crosland, told Dan Tepfer of CT Examiner on Thursday.
Who is ‘we’?