Michael P. Mayko, Staff Writer
Published: 11:00 p.m., Monday, September 13, 2010
DERBY -- The appearance was brief.
But the warning was stern.
"You are to have no contact with the victim in this case," Superior Court Judge Burton Kaplan warned Edward Voccola, the Bridgeport firefighter accused of dumping corrosive acid into his next-door neighbor's water line at the Woodland Mobile Home Park in Shelton.
Kaplan, who is wearing a neck brace and using a walker as a result of a bone spur operation, set Sept. 29 for Voccola's next appearance.
Voccola, a 22-year veteran of the Bridgeport Fire Department, was placed on administrative leave with pay as a result of his Sept. 5 arrest by Shelton police for attempted criminal assault on a person over 60 and reckless endangerment. He is free after posting $25,000 bond.
At the time of his arrest, Voccola was on sick leave from the Bridgeport Fire Department, according to Elaine Ficarra, a spokesman for Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch. The court file lists a heart condition.
For the past four years, Voccola has been assigned to Engine Company 15 on Bridgeport's Evers Street.
Following Monday's court appearance neither Voccola, 52, nor his lawyer, Kelly Rommel of Pattis & Smith in Bethany, would comment on the incident.
However, that didn't mean Voccola was silent.
"Tell the Connecticut Post to say a prayer for Steve and Mitch," Voccola remarked, referring to Lt. Steven Velasquez and Michel Baik, the two Bridgeport firefighters who died July 24 battling a house fire in that city.
"I miss my brothers," continued Voccola, a short, stocky man who is divorced with a daughter. "I do the same job as them. It could have been me...I still hurt."
Shelton police arrested Voccola after his next-door neighbor allegedly captured him on videotape. Shelton Police Detective Ben Trabka said the tape shows Voccola pouring what was later determined to be muriatic acid on the neighbor's water line leading into his home.
The acid, which is poisonous and highly corrosive, often is used by masons to clean and etch stone, brick, concrete and slate.
Police, using a search and seizure warrant, found several bottles of the acid in Voccola's shed, between his and his neighbor's house.
Park residents, management and police said Voccola has been feuding with his next-door neighbor since that man filed a report accusing the firefighter of dumping waste motor oil in his yard last fall.
The state Department of Environmental Protection was called and determined there was waste motor oil poured in both yards. Soil was removed at a cost of about $6,000 to the park management, according to Rick Ellis, regional manager for Garden Homes Management, which operates the park.
Since then neighbors, management and police said the victim has reported rocks thrown at his skylight and shut off valves to outside pipes stepped on. As a result, the victim installed a security system on his property.
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