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Earl O’Garro Wants Federal Charges Dismissed, Citing Bad Publicity and Biased Grand Jury

Jeff Cohen
/
WNPR
Earl O'Garro outside Hartford's federal courthouse.

O'Garro's lawyer said several stories were part of a "media storm"

A lawyer for embattled Hartford insurance executive Earl O'Garro said the federal indictment against him should be dismissed because extensive publicity denied him his right to an unbiased grand jury. But federal prosecutors argued the claim has no merit.

O’Garro, who once ran Hybrid Insurance, is scheduled to go on trial later this year on charges that he defrauded the city of Hartford, the state, and others. Prosecutors alleged Hartford officials gave O’Garro hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay its insurance premiums -- and while he got the money, he never paid the premiums.

But his public defender is hoping to derail the trial’s start. In a motion to dismiss filed in federal court,O’Garro’s attorney Tracy Hayes said the federal investigation of her client was tainted by bad press from the beginning.

Hayes wrote that the minutes of the secret grand jury that indicted O’Garro “reveal that a government case agent was not only persuaded by the publicity to investigate Mr. O’Garro, but also first learned about the possibilities of Mr. O'Garro's alleged fraud through the extensive media coverage."

That coverage began with stories about the role played by Hartford Treasurer Adam Cloud in actually getting the money to O’Garro to pay the premiums. But their relationship made headlines.

Officials at the Hartford Public Schools raised conflict of interest concerns because Cloud was doing city business with O’Garro at the same time that O’Garro had private financial dealings with Cloud’s father and brother. While O’Garro was eventually charged, Cloud was not. His attorney has called him a “victim,” and called O’Garro a “sociopath.”

Those are some of the headlines that haveO’Garro’sattorney concerned.

"Here, the significant publicity and public outcry generated by the case irreparably tainted the grand jury's integrity," Hayes wrote, adding that news "of the allegations involving Mr. O'Garro hit early and often, presuming him guilty as charged one year before the formal indictment, and weeks before he even met with the government."

Hayes then went on to list several stories from both WNPR and The Hartford Courant that were “just part of the media storm surrounding” O’Garro that “had an undeniable and irreversible impact on the grand jury.”

But while Hayes saw a “media storm,” prosecutors told the court in a separate filing that they saw just a “smattering” of stories. They argued that O’Garro’s motion to dismiss should be denied, that the proceedings were fair and impartial, and that “there is simply no evidence that any media reports infected grand jury deliberations in this case.”

“The published articles have not been inflammatory or salacious in nature,” prosecutors wrote, adding “there is no reason to conclude prejudice would have resulted.”

Prosecutors also said that O'Garro willingly contributed to that publicity. At one point, he sat for an interview with NBC Connecticut. O’Garro “blithely ignores that he generated the most colorful coverage of this case," prosecutors said. “It is ironic that the defendant urges the court to dismiss this case because of preindictment publicity when the defendant willingly contributed to that publicity.”

A judge has yet to rule on O'Garro's motion.

Correction: This story originally used the wrong gender pronoun to refer to Earl O'Garro's attorney. Tracy Hayes is a man.

Jeff Cohen started in newspapers in 2001 and joined Connecticut Public in 2010, where he worked as a reporter and fill-in host. In 2017, he was named news director. Then, in 2022, he became a senior enterprise reporter.

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