By John Nickerson
Staff Writer
Posted: 12/08/2008 01:00:00 AM EST
NORWALK - A special fire commission hearing scheduled for
today to determine whether a veteran firefighter will keep his
job after a larceny conviction has been postponed.
City attorney Jeffrey Spahr said the meeting for firefighter
Andre Williams will take place after his sentencing in state
Superior Court in Norwalk on Jan. 21. Williams' criminal
attorney, William Pelletreau, requested the postponement, Spahr
said, and the city did not object. A new date has not been
scheduled, he said.
Williams' union attorney, Daniel Hunsberger, said he met with
Spahr and Fire Chief Denis McCarthy on Friday.
"We expressed our position that the prudent thing to do
would be to put off the meeting until the judge makes his final
ruling," Hunsberger said. "We were prepared to go
forward on Monday, but we left it up to the city to decide about
the meeting. It was their call."
On Nov. 21, Williams, 46, pleaded guilty to third-degree
larceny after he was charged two years ago with first-degree
larceny, second-degree larceny and six counts of writing bad
checks. Williams wrote his landlord almost $22,000 in checks that
bounced, court records show.
At the plea hearing, Judge Burton Kaplan told Williams that he
faces a year in jail if he does not pay back $12,500 before his
sentencing date.
In 2006, Williams, who last year earned $92,332 in salary,
overtime and benefits, was granted a two-year diversionary court
program for first offenders that would have wiped away the
charges.
But, as a condition, Williams had to pay back the $12,500 he
owed his landlord after he made good on more than $9,000 in
bounced checks. When the program ended, however, Williams had not
made restitution, court records show.
Williams, who began working at the fire department in 1986,
was fired in 2006, then reinstated later that year on the
condition that he complete the program.