The arrest warrant affidavit that lead to Senator Louis DeLuca’s arrest Friday claims DeLuca had a “close and confidential relationship with” Danbury trash hauler James Galante, who has ties to a Genovese crime family member.
The relationship “would explain why DeLuca would seek out Businessman A’s assistance and why Businessman A would be willing to help DeLuca,” the affidavit states. Galante is referred to as Businessman A in the affidavit.
In Sept. 2006 an undercover federal agent, posing as a business associate of Galante, met with DeLuca. At that meeting DeLuca told the agent, “anytime [Businessman A] needs anything, anything, within my power, that I can do, I will do.” DeLuca then told the agent he was shocked when Galante was indicted because he “is not a careless guy.” Then DeLuca advised the agent that if they needed his assistance the best way to contact him is through a specific individual because “nobody knows [about] that relationship.”
Two days later DeLuca met with the undercover agent again. The agent asked DeLuca to influence legislation to help Galante. DeLuca said, “I can’t influence it at this point because it’s out of my hands, but if it gets to the point where I have appointments, I can influence it that way. You know, if somebody, if it’s a commission that needs to be in that, that, is gonna be a watchdog on CRRA and make recommendations then I’ll make an appoint…generally I get an appointment.”
During this conversation the affidavit says DeLuca refused $5,000 in cash from the agent, saying he was “afraid them guys…tracing things and shit like that.” He later told the agent to tell Galante to “hang in there and I’ll keep my eyes and ears open.”
On Sept. 21, 2006 DeLuca had a meeting with FBI agents and “admitted that his true purpose of his meeting with Businessman A had nothing to do with securing employment for the target, but rather was to see if Businessman A could pay a visit to the target identified by DeLuca in order to scare him,” the affidavit states.
It was also learned during the course of the investigation that Galante made a large donation in 2001 to a charitable cause sponsored by DeLuca. “Thereafter, DeLuca used his influence to cause Businessman A to be named ‘Italian-American Man of the Year’ by the Connecticut Italian-American legislative caucus. These facts were later confirmed by DeLuca,” according to the affidavit.
Editor’s note: The entire affidavit will be uploaded later on once get home to our scanner.
