CELL PHONES LINK FABRIZI TO SUSPECT

Mayor's Phone Records Show 13 Calls To Accused Cocaine Dealer In 04

BRIDGEPORT -- Though Mayor John M. Fabrizi said last month that he
didn't know Shawn Fardy "personally," his cell phone records show he
called the accused cocaine dealer at least 13 times between October
and December 2004. It's also the same time that Fardy is caught on a
FBI wiretap placing a cocaine order "in code" to his accused drug
connection, Juan Marrero, saying it's urgent that he get back to him
because Fardy has a lot of anxious customers. Marrero, who was
arrested on Feb. 19, 2005, for narcotics trafficking, "regularly
provided cocaine to Fardy who would in turn distribute cocaine to his
own customers," Juan Gonzalez Jr., a member of the FBI Safe Streets
Task Force, states in Fardy's arrest affidavit.

Fabrizi also failed to mention that as a justice of the peace he
performed Fardy's marriage to Lori Lasorso in July 6, 2001, according
to city records.

Another alleged link between Fabrizi and Fardy surfaced in documents
filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday in connection with a
sweeping federal investigation into drug dealing in southwestern
Connecticut. Accused drug kingpin Juan Marrero told the FBI that
Fardy, a Democratic Town Committee member, said he had a video
showing Fabrizi using cocaine, according to the documents.

Marrero also said that he once provided Fardy with 15.5 grams of
cocaine after Fardy told him that "Fabrizi was coming over" and
"needed a hit," the documents said.

"I've made some poor choices in my personal life. It's human. I've
never claimed to be a choir boy," Fabrizi said last week, responding
to the allegations. Pressed on what the choices were, Fabrizi would
only say: "They were poor choices on a social level & They were
random poor decisions that were of a personal nature to me."

Fabrizi has not been charged with any crime.

'Poor choice of words'

On May 24, when it was revealed that Fardy, 36, of Nutmeg Road, was
charged with conspiring to possess cocaine with intent to distribute
and using a phone to facilitate a drug deal, Fabrizi distanced
himself from the Democratic Town Committee member.

"I know a lot of people in this city. But I didn't know him
personally," Fabrizi, a Democrat, said of Fardy.

Confronted with an analysis of cell phone bills he'd provided to the
Connecticut Post in March that showed the mayor's calls to Fardy's
cell phone, Fabrizi acknowledged that he had called Fardy on numerous
occasions over the last few years. Asked to explain his previous
statement, about not knowing Fardy "personally," Fabrizi said his
comment represented a "poor choice of words." He said his brother,
Mark, was friends with Fardy.

"As soon as I saw that in the paper, I knew it was a poor choice of
words," Fabrizi said. "My brother was friends with Shawn. I talked to
him on a number of occasions.

"I'm sorry," Fabrizi said. "I have talked to his mother and father
and talked to him." Fardy's father, Andrew, is a member of the city's
Democratic Town Committee. His mother, Patricia, is chairwoman of the
Planning and Zoning Commission. Shawn Fardy was first elected to the
90-member Bridgeport Town Committee in March 2004.

The mayor placed the calls to Fardy on his city-issued cell phone,
according to records the Connecticut Post obtained in response to a
Freedom of Information request. Christmas calls

As he turned over the records, Fabrizi reviewed random portions of
some of the bills in a 3-inch-thick stack covering the period from
April 2003 through January 2006. Fabrizi told a reporter that all of
the bills were his and that his office had instituted improved
accounting measures to ensure that city departments know which phones
are assigned to whom.

According to the records, Fabrizi chose Christmas 2004 -- a time when
families and friends strive to be closer -- to call Fardy's cell
phone at least five times between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and
the day after. Christmas Day also is the mayor's birthday.

"Shawn was very down and out around the holidays, and I reached out
to him so he could spend it with my family, so he could feel like he
was worth something," Mark Fabrizi said. "I thought he'd be safer
with us than by himself."

Mark Fabrizi was unsure whether he called Fardy from his brother's
city-issued cell phone around Christmas 2004.

"Maybe. Probably," Mark Fabrizi said. "I mean if I did I don't know
what phone I used, you know, or if I did. If we were in a car
together and I didn't have a phone and he did, yeah, I'm going to
borrow it from my brother & My family is very tight. We're tightly
weaved together."

The calls were made to Fardy's personal cell phone, which is not
listed in a directory. For the mayor to have the number, someone
would have had to give it to him.

According to the records, John Fabrizi, or his brother, called Fardy
at 8:38 p.m. and 9:57 p.m. on Christmas Eve 2004. On Christmas, the
very first call made from Fabrizi's cell phone was an attempt to
reach Fardy at 11:50 a.m. Instead, Advertisementa wrong number was
dialed. That was followed up with two more calls, starting at 11:51
a.m. The last time the cell phone records show Fabrizi's cell phone
contacting Fardy was at 2:05 p.m. the day after Christmas. The calls
totaled 10 minutes.

Around the same time John, or Mark, Fabrizi was calling Fardy, the
Town Committee member was making some calls of his own.

On Dec. 23, 2004, an affidavit based on a federal wiretap states that
Fardy called Juan Marrero at around 2:16 p.m. and placed an order, in
code, for 15 grams of cocaine.

Then, on Dec. 27 at about 1:47 p.m. Fardy called Juan Marrero again
and said that he needed to see Marrero again and he was sorry.

That meant, according to the affidavit, that Fardy was requesting
another quantity of narcotics and letting Marrero know it was urgent
because Fardy's customers were seeking him out urgently to buy
narcotics. Wedding ceremony

Long before Fabrizi became Bridgeport's mayor, he was one of the
city's dozens of justices of the peace. He performed Fardy's civil
wedding ceremony on July 6, 2001 to Lori Frances Lasorso. It was the
first marriage for the bride and the groom, two Bridgeport natives,
who went to their high school prom together and dated on and off for
years before marrying. Lori Fardy could not be reached for comment.
Fabrizi's signature appears on the bottom of Fardy's marriage license
in large, clear cursive handwriting below Fardy's scribbled signature.

Fabrizi said that his brother, Mark, asked him to conduct the wedding ceremony.

Mark Fabrizi confirmed that he asked the mayor to "do the wedding as
a favor" to him.

"I've known Shawn since we were 5. We were fishing buddies back in
the day, and rode dirt bikes together too," Mark Fabrizi said from
his motorcycle shop. "But I haven't talked to him in a while. I've
got Lyme disease. It's been bad, flaring up a lot lately."

Referring to other calls in 2004 placed to Fardy on John Fabrizi's
city-issued cell phone, the mayor acknowledged he made them, but said
he could not recall specific conversations.

"It could have been a number of issues, either political, town
committee or returning a call," John Fabrizi said.

When asked if FBI agents or other law enforcement officials had
discussed Fardy with him, John Fabrizi declined to comment.

On Oct. 29, 2004, U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who just
two years earlier presided over former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P.
Ganim's corruption trial, signed an order allowing federal agents to
tap the phones of Juan and his brother, Victor, Marrero, identified
in court documents as Target Telephones I, II and IV. None of the
court documents released to date indicate who owned Target Telephone III.

Just before Arterton gave the government permission to tap the
Marrero brothers' phones, John Fabrizi dialed Fardy's cell phone at
least eight times. The exchanges lasted a total of 17 minutes,
according to the cell phone records. The federal wiretapping
operation eventually led to the arrest of Victor and Juan Marrero in
March 2005 on drug-trafficking charges.

Victor Marrero has pleaded guilty and Juan Marrero is awaiting trial.
In a court affidavit, a police officer swore that Juan Marrero told
him -- and other law enforcement officers -- that he "regularly
provided cocaine to Fardy who would in turn distribute cocaine to his
own customers."

Asked last week if he ever bought drugs from Fardy, Fabrizi declined
to comment. On May 24, when asked the same question, he had
responded, "Absolutely not."

'Not talking'

Outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport on Tuesday, where Fardy
emerged after his arraignment on the drug-trafficking charges, he
refused to say much to reporters. "Uh, I am not talking," he said,
before flashing the peace sign. "Uh-uh."

Under the city's phone policy, calls should involve only city
business. But the policy notes that "personal calls must be held to a
minimum," and the cost of those calls must be reimbursed.

Caryn Kaufman, a spokeswoman for Fabrizi, said the mayor's personal
calls, placed through his cell phone, do not violate the policy. She
said top staff, including the mayor, have unlimited minutes on their
cell phone plans, so there is no cost to reimburse.

The policy does not address whether a city-issued cell phone can be
loaned to another person. In fact, the phone policy does not even
mention cell phones. It was established in 1996.

Staff writers Michael P. Mayko and Ariane Rasmussen contributed to this report.