A measly $5,000, this guy is an amateur. He should have lived and worked in New Fairfield, would have been given an award by our 1st Selectman.
Ex-Redding official charged with stealing from town
John Pirro, Staff Writer
Updated 09:55 p.m., Thursday, November 24, 2011
The 59-year-old Sanford surrendered to Brookfield police, who conducted the investigation, after being informed they had obtained a Superior Court warrant charging him with first-degree larceny.
According to information previously made public, Sanford, who resigned abruptly from his Redding town post in July, was being investigated for allegedly ordering highway department employees to work on an antique truck that he was restoring and for using town funds to maintain a lawn tractor he owned.
He was released on a written promise to appear in state Superior Court in Danbury on Dec. 8.
"As the town of Redding was the victim, we asked another police department to conduct the investigation," said Redding Police Chief Douglas Fuchs, explaining Brookfield's involvement in the case. "The Redding Police Department did assist Brookfield with certain portions of the investigation."
Sanford, who also serves as chief of the Redding Ridge Volunteer Fire Department, has already been charged with two counts of larceny and one count of attempted larceny of a person over 60, accusations that were brought by Redding police in September as a result of information they said came to light during the embezzlement inquiry.
In that case, police said Sanford billed 83-year-old June Kay of New York City about $4,300 for tree-cutting and other maintenance work that was never performed at her summer home on Lee Lane in Redding over the past several years.
Sanford has pleaded not guilty to those charges, and his attorney, Michael Corsello of Norwalk, has accused police of omitting information from the arrest warrant application that would have cast doubt on those allegations.
Sanford is scheduled for a court appearance Monday in that case, and Corsello previously said he will be asking the judge to hold an evidentiary hearing that could lead to dismissal of the charges.
Corsello could not be contacted Wednesday evening.
A search warrant application unsealed by court officials in September alleges that Sanford not only directed highway department subordinates to work on his 1977 Mack truck, he also used town funds to purchase parts for the vehicle's restoration and for maintenance of his Club Cadet lawn tractor.
A partial inventory of purchases included in that document showed at least $5,000 had been spent on the truck, but investigators said at the time it was written that a final total hadn't yet been determined.
Under state law, first-degree larceny involves the theft of $10,000 or more.
Contact John Pirro at jpirro@newstimes.com or 203-731-3342.
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