SEEC Dismisses Complaint Against Engel

The State Elections Enforcement Commission has cleared former East Hampton town councilwoman Melissa Engel of any misuse of absentee ballots leading up to the town referendum on Nov. 2, 2010.

The SEEC ruling (see pdf) on March 21 stems from a complaint made by Sgt. Garritt Kelly on Sept. 27, 2011.

“I’m very pleased, but not surprised, because I had worked diligently with [town clerk] Sandy Wieleba on how to go about doing this,” Engel said. “I knew I was doing it the right way and had sought her council on that.”

Engel was town council chair during the controversy surrounding the attempted removal of Police Chief Matt Reimondo by then-Town Manager Jeffrey O’Keefe in 2010. The town council voted to remove the position of Police Chief at a public hearing on Sept. 28, 2010, which led to the referendum. The Chief, and the position of police chief, were ultimately reinstated by a result of the vote.

According to the complaint, Kelly was ordered by Reimondo to investigate Engel and Douglas Logan in relation to 11 absentee ballot applications filed with the East Hampton Town Clerk, each of which bore Engel's attestation that she assisted the applicant in filling out the form.

Kelley’s preliminary investigation resulted in three allegations being made: that Engel may have sent the 11 individuals unsolicited absentee ballot applications and that she delivered certain applicants' completed applications as well as their completed absentee ballots to the town clerk without qualifying as a "designee" under General Statutes § 9-369 (a).

The Commission found the evidence did not establish that Engel sent unsolicited applications to any of the 11 individuals. Each individual made statements to the Commission supporting Engel’s assertion that the applications were not unsolicited.

According to the complaint, a former resident of East Hampton told Kelly that she heard Richard and Donna Kelley say they had not solicited the absentee ballot applications delivered to them by Engel. The complaint, however, did not say whether Mr. and Mrs. Kelley were contacted by the East Hampton Police Department in association with their investigation, which the SEEC took note of in its findings.

As for the other two allegations, the complaint alleges, and the records of the East Hampton Town Clerk establish, that Engel was the designee for two of the applicants, Robert and Laura Richter, who are husband and wife. Mrs. Richter is Engel's sister and Mr. Richter is her brother-in-law.

The Commission concluded that under General Statutes § 9-369c Engel was a family member of Robert and Laura Richter and therefore the allegations she improperly handled absentee ballot applications and/or absentee ballots should be dismissed.

Logan also was cleared of any wrongdoing.

East Hampton Town Clerk Sandy Wieleba sent a letter to Gilberto Oyola, the lead legal investigator at the SEEC, in support of Engel.

In the letter, Wieleba says “Melissa Engel followed the rules when requesting absentee ballot applications – filling out the log and being responsible for any absentee ballot applications in her possession.”

Wieleba also took issue with the contents of the complaint, which according to a Hartford Courant article, said Wieleba “’became suspicious’ after learning that two of the applicants for absentee ballots, Donna Kelley and Richard Kelley ‘apparently had not requested the applications and had received them unsolicited.’”

Wieleba said in the letter that the statement is untrue and that she never made a statement to that effect. “At no time did I ever suspect any wrongdoing by Ms. Engel or my staff.”

Assistant Town Clerk Bernice Bartlett also wrote to Oyola outlining some of the events relating to this issue. In the letter, Bartlett says “I do not believe that Ms. Engel violated the Connecticut Elections Laws pertaining to Applications for Absentee Ballots for Referendum. Remarks and insinuations in this complaint are unfounded.”

Engel, who did not seek re-election this past November, had retained Attorney Ken Barber to represent her during this investigation. She would not comment whether she would be pursuing litigation against the town.

“I think it’s very interesting that the Chief would waste taxpayer’s dollars assigning Garritt Kelly a non-criminal case and apparently, a lot of time investigating it,” Engel said. “More importantly than that, the complaint he sent to Hartford, which was a signed affidavit to its trueness, was not true, and that would make me very suspicious of his intentions.”