Attorney and former CT Senator Dennis Bradley went down in flames, getting convicted of all counts of political corruption on Friday, March 27. The jury didn’t take much time coming to a decision.

All the Feds had to prove was that Bradley used his personal funds, around $5K, to fund a campaign announcement that was disguised as a “BRADLEY, KARAYIANNIS & DENKOVICH law firm thank you” party night, as a way to get around the campaign spending law when you accept public funds. Bradley used to be a first named partner at that firm, but apparently was let go after his indictment.

The law firm party night was held at the now shuttered dive bar called the “Dolphin cafe” on the dangerous East End of Bridgeport. Many members of the CT bar, such as Bridgeport attorney Johanna Ramirez Haddad testified at the trial. Johanna testified that she was the Master of Ceremonies. Haddad may or may not be related to disbarred Bridgeport personal injury attorney Joseph Haddad who did four years in a four million dollar ambulance chasing scheme with chiropractor Mark Kirshner. Johanna Haddad is also a personal injury attorney, who claims she settled multi million dollar cases on the website of the law firm where she works, the Ventura Law Firm. I was locked up with Kirshner in Otisville Federal prison. Not a bad guy. He was pretty good at smuggling mozzarella cheese out of the warehouse and into the dorm area.

Attorney Crosland filed a motion to acquit Bradley after the DOJ rested their case. Bradley’s former law partners Attorneys Michael Denkovich and Peter Karayiannis were at the party and testified during the trial. They were never charged with a crime. The key part of the crime was Bradley’s “announcement” at the party that he was going to run for office. Didn’t Bradley have a First Amendment right to talk about the election at the law firm party? Crosland never made any First Amendment argument or defense. Too bad. If he makes such an argument on appeal he may get shot down for not raising it at the trial court level.

A guy named Chinedu Ogbenta testified at the trial. He said that he was a client of Attorney Karayiannis and was invited to the “law firm” party. A few years ago a guy named Chinedu Ogbenta was busted for snorting cocaine in the bathroom at Geronimos restaurant in Fairfield. Restaurant employees chased him out of the restaurant and called the cops. They described him as wearing a pink tank top. The cops spotted him in the parking lot at 55 Degrees restaurant, in the pink tank top, snorting cocaine in his car.

The law firm party was attended by a number of lawyers, misfits and druggies such as Jessica Martinez, Bradleys campaign volunteer, who pleaded guilty to her role in the Bradley crime, cooperated with the DOJ and was locked up for testing positive multiple times for cocaine. She finally checked herself into an in patient drug treatment center. Tina Manus, another one of Bradley’s indicted cronies was also at the party. A few years back she angered the political bosses when she posted on Facebook the following words to describe politicos Themis Klarides and Laura Dancho: “The State House Hooker is here! Oh goody!” In her defense Manus claimed she was referring to herself as a hooker and not referring to Klarides or Dancho.

Lenny Grimaldi also testified against Bradley. In the words of Lenny Grimaldi: “Out of the box on cross examination the combative, nattily-dressed Crosland tried to frame me as a liar my entire life and brought up my past indiscretions 25 years ago… I wish I had counted how many times Crosland called me a liar. My under-oath rejoinder: I have never lied to a government agent, never lied under oath and I’m not starting now.” Never lied??? The reason Lenny never lied to a government agent is because he cooperated and took a deal to stay out of jail, while Ganim went to jail for 10 years. Lenny didn’t mention that he conspired with Joseph Ganim in one of the biggest political corruption cases of fraud, lies and thievery in the history of the City of Bridgeport.

Bradley was charged with “wire fraud” which the DOJ uses frequently in its criminal justice toolkit. The Feds can indict a ham sandwich on “wire fraud” charges. Bradley’s attorney Crosland argued to the jury that “wire fraud” is overkill that is typically used to bust the “Sopranos” and that Bradley was being “lynched” due to the color of his skin. Crosland used party props in his closing argument by putting a heart-shaped balloon, tinsel, and a disco ball on his lecturn, with tinsel around his neck, and argued to the jury that the government had “weaponized the system” against Bradley and told jurors to “end the party.” Did Crosland actually think that his freaky minstrel show was going to convince the jury to acquit? If the tinsel don’t fit, you need to acquit! Crosland presented no witnesses to testify in support of Bradley. Bradley didn’t take the witness stand in his own defense. Bradley didn’t have a chance. He should have taken a plea deal. Talk about stupidity.

Bradley will probably be getting locked up in a Federal prison camp in the tri-State area. Otisville seems to be the prison of choice for non-violent white collar criminals. I spent almost two years in Otisville. Otisville has about 100 inmates, more or less, most of whom are of the Jewish race / faith. I am free to provide prison advice to Mr. Bradley at no charge, I figure he is probably bankrupt after paying his attorneys fees. He went through two attorneys. He had high priced Jim Glasser represent him before Crosland. Glasser had to review 69,000 documents that the DOJ provided to him as part of the case. Talk about a document dump! This wasn’t a big case, how did the Feds amass 69K documents? And how much are the taxpayers getting charged in government employee salaries and overhead to amass such a pile of paperwork in this rather small corruption case?

Most of the guys in Otisville have either been bankrupted by their attorneys and / or ex-wives or they are so rich that money is no object, and pay the poor drug dealers to do their laundry, perform their prison jobs and train them in the gym.

If you have a tip, story idea, suggested correction, or would like help brainstorming a legal issue you are dealing with, you can reach me at: larrylokshen@gmail.com.

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