Connecticut Senate Minority Leader Pleads Guilty

The Hartford Courant reports:

Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca pleaded guilty today to a misdemeanor threat charge for asking a businessman with suspected mob ties to threaten someone he believed was hurting a relative.

DeLuca, 73, received a six-month suspended sentence at Superior Court in Waterbury and was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and donate $1,500 to charity as part of the plea deal.

"I am ashamed and sorry for my action," he said. "I take full responsibility. My primary concern was the welfare of my family."

The judge also ordered DeLuca not to have further contact with Danbury trash hauler James Galante, who is awaiting trial on 72 counts of tax fraud, racketeering, threatening and extortion following a federal probe of organized crime in southwestern Connecticut's trash industry.

"The defendant engaged in a very bad judgment, meeting with Mr. Galante and enlisting Mr. Galante," prosecutor Michael Gailor said.

DeLuca was arrested by state prosecutors Friday, accused of asking Galante to scare away a young man involved in an abusive relationship with his granddaughter. The events have been presented by law enforcement as a political morality tale involving a powerful trash industry figure and an influential senator.

Politics and the mob go hand in hand.