New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
School board hires law firm to investigate member’s ‘conduct’
NEW HAVEN — A member of the Board of Education is the target of a law firm’s investigation at the request of the board, documents show.
The school board voted to hire Waterbury-based attorneys to investigate Darnell Goldson; the July vote authorized the district to spend up to $14,000 on the investigation. The investigation was included on the agenda at Monday’s school board meeting, but with no finalized report, President Yesenia Rivera said the matter would be postponed to a later meeting.
“It’s unfair to me,” Goldson said. “I want it on the record this is causing me some serious, serious issues mentally and psychologically.”
In a July 30 letter to Goldson from Tinley, Renehan & Dost attorney Amita Rossetti, which was obtained by the Register, Goldson was informed the firm is investigating his “conduct” from March 2020 as to whether his conduct “constitutes harassment or a violation of any local, federal or state ordinances, laws, provisions of the City’s Code of Ethics and/or Board of Education bylaws.”
In procuring the contract, district staff reached out to the legal firm seeking “general employment law advice, including investigation of allegations of misconduct, such as harassment, relating to employees.”
Goldson said he does not know what the claims
against him are, but he has declined to participate in the investigation.
“My attorney suggested that we don’t participate because it is clearly a witch hunt. To not name an actual complaint except for ‘my conduct’, no specific action or activity, or a complainant was silly,” Goldson said in a text message.
It’s not the first time Goldson has been investigated while he has been on the school board.
In January 2019, he received a public apology from then-Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks following an investigation as to whether he created a hostile workplace for her as a board member. His attorney said Goldson was “exonerated in all respects” following that investigation. Goldson argued that the lack of specificity around the allegations led people to draw inaccurate conclusions about him.
For the current investigation, Rivera said the board anticipates “receiving the
attorney’s findings in the next week or so, at which point we can more fully discuss the parties involved and the nature of the investigation.”
Rivera has not commented on the substance of the investigation.
Rivera said she is unsure whether the district has been billed for the law firm’s services yet, so she does not know how much of the pre-approved $14,000 has been spent. Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey declined to comment.
Board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur said she knows nothing about the investigation, and requested more answers from the board.
“Either there’s something there or there isn’t. We can’t have someone keep trying to dig something up on someone,” she said.