Maltese Vs. Maturo: Court Makes Final Decision On Mayor's Race

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

EAST HAVEN, CT – There is no question that East Haven’s mayor will continue to be Republican Joseph Maturo, Jr. A Superior Court judge’s ruling Tuesday made sure of that.

Maturo’s Democratic challenge, Salvatore Maltese, had filed a lawsuit challenging the election results, claiming there were improprieties before during the election by town officials, including Maturo.

But after two days of testimony, Superior Court Judge Sheila Ozalis issued a ruling late Tuesday afternoon in Maturo’s favor.

“This court finds plaintiff Maltese has filled to carry his burden of establishing that there were substantial errors in the rulings of an election official or substantial discrepancies or mistakes that would affect the results of the November 7, 2017 mayoral election, such that would render the reliability of the result of the election, as reported by election officials seriously in double,” Ozalis’ ruling said.

“According this court does find sufficient reason to grant the plaintiff Maltese’s request for a recount and such request is denied.”

Maturo was happy he won; unhappy with his opponent.

“While I am certainly glad the Town prevailed in the frivolous lawsuit brought by Mr. Maltese, I am saddened and angered by the costs he forced the Town to incur and the angst he caused both the residents and the officials he named in the complaint,” said Maturo

“It speaks volumes about the complaint and about him personally that he brought this action and did not even have the decency or courage to appear in the court room for the entire second day of the hearing. It is unfortunate that someone can make such outlandish allegations without any documentation, fail to prove any of those allegations, and then leave the Town and the taxpayers on the hook for the bill,” Maturo said.

Maturo went on: “This suit and the reckless allegations alleged in it have done permanent damage to the civic fiber of our community. Mr. Maltese owes the residents and the taxpayers an apology for his selfish, reckless, and costly actions. Now with this circus behind us, my team and I look forward to getting back to working to keep our community a safe, affordable, beautiful place to live, work, and raise a family."

Maturo won the election by 105 votes, 3,648 votes to 3,543 for Maltese, a margin of slightly more than 1 percent. State law mandates a recount if the outcome is within half of 1 percent of the vote - or - when a discrepancy is found in the voting.

Two hours of testimony and closing arguments on Monday followed seven hours of testimony on Friday in the case.

In his closing argument, Maltese’s attorney, Edward Marcus, who is the former state Democratic Party chairman, said there is nothing to be lost by having a recount.

“Mayor Maturo is responding in such a way that leads me to believe that a recount will change the result of the election,” Marcus said.

The primary claim in the complaint is the rejection of absentee ballots by Republican Town Clerk Stacy Gravino.

The battery of lawyers defending Maturo and the other defendants in the case disputed Marcus’ claim that there would be nobody hurt by having a recount.

“There has been no evidence entered whatsoever that anyone was not allowed to vote,” Maturo’s personal lawyer Lawrence C. Sgrignari told the judge. “Additionally there has been no evidence entered that a recount would result in a different outcome in anyway.”

To allow a candidate to ask for a recount just because the election was close, but not within the state law for a mandatory recount, would set a dangerous precedent that other losing candidates could follow, Maturo’s lawyers argued.

And election night moderator Donna DeLeone, who is a Democrat like Maltese, testified she didn’t believe there were any discrepancies that warranted a recount.

The lawsuit claims there were 596 applications for absentee ballots and that “an unknown number were rejected by her (Gravino). The reasons for the rejection of the ballots have not been publicly expressed," the complaint states.

The complaint goes onto claim there were few if any witnesses to the counting of absentee ballots.

"The tallying of absentee ballots occurred without the moderator or Registrar of the Democratic Party, nor was a recount offered," the complaint states. "The discrepancies in the number of absentee ballots results in additional votes for the Defendant Maturo which affect the results of the election in his favor."

Gravino herself won re-election in the Town Clerk’s race, but also by a close margin of about 200 votes.

The complaint further states that members of the Republican Party were within 75 feet of a polling place during election hours, a violation of state law.

It goes onto to allege there were discrepancies with polling machines in District 5.

The lawsuit said that Maltese would have won the election if the issues didn’t occur before the election with the absentee ballots – and – the improprieties didn’t exist on Election Day.

Over the weekend, Maturo was sworn into his ninth term as the longest serving New Haven area chief executive in the area in front of family, friends and supporters.