Waterbury Investigation: Enter and Sign-in, Please.

The Courant’s report that John Connelly, the high profile Waterbury state’s attorney, accepted trips to Las Vegas and Florida paid for by local criminal defense Martin Minella has touched off a storm of speculation in legal circles.  Connelly, according to the Dave Altimari and Ed Mahony story, claims he reimbursed Minella in cash.  That’s a defense that the hard-driving Connelly would scoff at if offered by a defendant the veteran prosecutor had on the griddle.  Connelly may have to relinquish his authority until he provides clear, satisfactory answers to the issues raised in the probe.

The piece of information in the story furrowing the most foreheads today is who was Connelly’s travel guest on the Minella-fronted trips?  It would add another layer to the troublesome case if it’s a member of the criminal justice establishment who was entangled in a web of professional and personal dealings with the actors under scrutiny.

Trip arrangements of the sort leaking out of the federal investigation will have propelled government gumshoes on the ground to scour arrangements around other types of leisure time activities, including but not limited to, the house accounts at local restaurants and public houses in the inscrutable milieu that is Waterbury.