Press Releases
08/25/2023
Former Fairfield Town Official Pleads Guilty to Environmental Crimes and Conspiring with Others to Defraud Town
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Rocky Hill, CT) - Chief State’s Attorney Patrick J. Griffin announced today that former Fairfield Public Works Superintendent Scott Bartlett, age 61, of Fairfield, pleaded guilty on August 24, 2023 in Bridgeport Superior Court to nine felony environmental and fraud offenses.
Bartlett entered guilty pleas to charges of Larceny in the First Degree, Illegal Disposal of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Disruption of a Solid Waste Disposal Area and Conspiracy to Commit the following crimes - Receiving Solid Waste at an Unpermitted Facility, Illegal Disposal of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Discharging Materials Into the Waters of Connecticut Without a Permit, Larceny in the First Degree, Operating a Solid Waste Facility Without a Permit and Disruption of a Solid Waste Disposal Area.
Under his plea agreement, Bartlett faces up to 15 years' incarceration, execution suspended after five years served, and five years of probation. The plea agreement also requires Bartlett to make restitution payments to the Town of Fairfield for the harm caused.
In 2019, following a lengthy and in-depth investigation by the Fairfield Police Department and the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney into the suspected corrupt activities and illegal dumping operations on town property located at the Fairfield Department of Public Works (DPW), Bartlett and six others were arrested. Joseph Michelangelo, the former Fairfield Director of Public Works, pleaded guilty on November 7, 2022 to nine felony environmental and fraud offenses and is awaiting sentencing in Bridgeport Superior Court.
Under Bartlett’s plea agreement, Bartlett admitted that he and other Town officials participated in a pattern of activities that included a conspiracy between themselves and a contractor they hired to operate part of the DPW property.
The cases are being prosecuted by the Statewide Prosecution Unit of the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, along with the assistance of the Fairfield State’s Attorney’s Office. The Fairfield Police Department, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assisted in the investigation.
Bartlett is scheduled for sentencing in Bridgeport Superior Court on November 15, 2023.