New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Bridgeport seeks to block release of reports in unsolved murder
BRIDGEPORT — The city is opposing an order to turn over police reports to the family of a murdered man.
Assistant City Attorney Dina Scalo filed a motion this week in Superior Court to quash a subpoena for the Police Department’s file in the case of a New Haven man, 28-year-old Eric Salters Jr., who was shot to death in a parking lot on Jan.
26, 2019. The case remains unsolved.
Salters’ family filed a lawsuit against the New England Tractor Training School which was using the Barnum Avenue parking lot for its students.
Louis Annecchino, who represents the Salters family, stated they need the police file in the case for their lawsuit. He has filed a Freedom of Information request for the file in addition to seeking a subpoena for it.
Annecchino declined comment on the lawsuit.
In her motion to quash, Scalo argues that the records pertain to an open homicide case and their release could compromise that investigation. She stated that the records could be used to influence testimony or create alibis significantly impeding the ability of the Police Department to do its investigation.
“Disclosure of the subpoenaed records would also reveal the identities of witnesses not otherwise known whose safety would be endangered,” her motion states.
“The city has no comment as this remains an active investigation,” said the mayor’s spokeswoman, Rowena White.
Salters was a student at the tractor trailer school at the time of his death.
According to the lawsuit, Salters parked his vehicle in the parking lot and went to class. At approximately 11 a.m., the suit states, Salters was on a break from class and walked to his parked car.
“As he proceeded through the parking lot to his vehicle, he was approached by an unknown individual who shot Mr. Salters and then fled the scene,” the lawsuit states.
In a statement released the day of the shooting, Lt. Christopher LaMaine said the evidence indicated Salters was “confronted by a lone gunman, who opened fire on him without provocation. (He) was struck multiple times, including once in the head.”
LaMaine said at the time that the motive for the shooting was unclear.
The suit claims the tractor training school was negligent in Salters’ death by failing to provide adequate safety in its parking lot, failing to properly monitor the parking lot and not taking steps to ensure the safety of its students in the lot.
Neither officials of NETTTS nor their lawyer returned calls for comment.
The city’s motion comes nearly two weeks after it went to court to block the release of police reports to a convicted killer. The Bridgeport Police Department filed an appeal in Superior Court on March 5 of an order by the state Freedom of Information Commission that it turn over witness statements.
In the lawsuit the city argued that the release of the information to Marlando “Massup” Daley could subject witnesses to potential harm. That case is pending.
GREENWICH — High-powered corporate attorney Gordon Caplan sealed his fate in a dimly lit, book-lined Greenwich home office, according to the new Netflix documentary, “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal.”
About 10 minutes into the film, Caplan, played by Wallace Langham in re-enactments of wiretapped conversations, gets a call from William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind behind the massive conspiracy for wealthy parents to buy admittance into elite universities for their children.
“The front door means getting in on your own,” says Singer, played by Matthew Modine, after Caplan asks for an explanation of his services. “The back door is making a donation, which is 10 times as much money. I’ve created this kind of side door in. Because with the back door, there’s no guarantee. They’re just going to give you a second look. My families want a guarantee.”
The conversation, which took place June 15, 2018, was the start of the relationship between Caplan and Singer that would end in an arrest on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest service mail fraud and a one-month prison sentence for Caplan, who paid Singer $75,000 to help falsify his daughter’s ACT score.
Just under a year later, Caplan and more than 50 co-conspirators — 33 of whom were parents, most notably the actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman — would be swept up in a federal sting operation, in which Singer, the mastermind, turned informant. The documentary, directed by Chris Smith (“Fyre,” “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann”), details Singer’s modus operandi, his unlikely start as a failed basketball coach turned educational consultant for the rich, and the lies he spun to clients. According to the documentary, Singer was known for padding his resume, lying about serving as a board member at Starbucks and other accomplishments that for years went unchecked.
It also shows the ways in which Singer ingratiated himself with coaches and athletic directors by promising donations — often to niche sports in need of money, including sailing and water polo — from parents who, in reality, were buying a spot for their child on a college roster for a sport they didn’t play. The most brazen examples, according to the documentary, are a 5-foot-5inch college basketball player, or a child who had never played water polo who was Photoshopped into a game scenario and ultimately accepted at the University of Southern California.
Yale University in New Haven was also implicated in the scandal, and the documentary gives considerable time to Rudy Meredith, the former women’s soccer coach at the Ivy League institution who accepted bribes from Singer and then played a crucial early role in the FBI’s pursuit of the consultant.
According to the documentary, federal agents came upon Singer’s illegal operation when a financial executive, brought up on separate charges, told investigators about Meredith, who had offered him a bribe. Meredith, played by William Christopher Stephens in re-enactments, was indicted and, in a move for leniency, cooperated with investigators and informed on Singer.
The film portrays Singer as an unscrupulous opportunist who cooperates with the FBI and IRS and helps ensnare his clients with a series of staged wiretapped phone calls in which he coaxes parents and coaches into stating their guilt. In one re-enacted conversation, Singer describes a plan to Caplan to secure extra time for his daughter on her ACT, an accommodation made for students with learning disabilities.
Singer tells Caplan to instruct his daughter, “To be stupid, to not be as smart as she is. The goal is, to be slow,” thereby justifying a time extension.
“The Academy kids are getting extra time all the time,” Singer says.
“You mean the Greenwich Academy?” Caplan responds.
“Yeah,” Singer chuckles. “Everywhere in the country.”
While the conversations in the film are based on transcript, a representative from Greenwich Academy pointed out that some of the dialogue had been modified from the the official Department of Justice transcript.
In the official conversation between Singer and Caplan, the latter clarifies that Greenwich Academy was not the subject of the conversation (according to the Greenwich Academy representative, Caplan’s daughter never attended the school). “Oh, oh you mean at her tennis academy. I see. Yeah. Okay,” Caplan says, in the transcript. In the Netflix documentary, Singer tells Caplan that extra time or not, the score is, “whatever we want it to be.” He created a process in which Caplan and his daughter would fly to Los Angeles for a fake recruiting visit. On that trip, arrangements were made for a private proctor to administer the ACT to Caplan’s daughter. She would take the exam and then submit it to the proctor — a standardized testing coach hired by Singer who could achieve near perfect scores on demand — who would then re-take the exam and submit his answers under Caplan’s daughter’s name.
For the right price, Singer could supposedly guarantee standardized test scores befitting of the country’s most elite institutions. Caplan, like other parents depicted in the film, at times expresses some hesitance. “To be honest, it feels a little weird,” he allegedly says to Singer on one phone call.
But the concern apparently extends only to reputation.
The film’s final exchange between the two shows Caplan, standing on an ivory balcony looking out over a private tennis court in his Greenwich backyard. Caplan explains that his wife was “nervous” and would no longer be involved with Singer. After Caplan asks for reassurance that details of the deal wouldn’t come out, Singer stresses the importance of discretion and reminds Caplan of his track record.
“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Singer says. “To be honest, I’m not worried about the moral issue here,” Caplan said. “I’m worried about … she gets caught doing that, she’s finished.”