Roodner Court is well known for a number of reasons, the least having to do with the fact that it is public housing. It’s the address that often appears on crime reports, the address that often is whispered as a place to score a drug, the census tract that leads the poverty charts. Roodner Court is short, has many known problems that have remained intractable for decades.
A convicted felon was arrested early yesterday on charges of carrying a loaded .357-magnum revolver after shots were reportedly fired at the Roodner Court public housing complex.
Matthew Terry, 24, of 41 Soundview Ave., Norwalk, was charged with carrying a gun without a permit, weapons in a motor vehicle, third-degree criminal trespass and theft of a firearm. He was released on $7,500 bond and is to appear in state Superior Court in Norwalk on Dec. 28.
Gunfire was reported at Roodner Court just after 1 a.m. A stolen gun was discovered in Terry’s coat pocket after he and a female passenger were pulled over in his car, Sgt. Andre Velez said.
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According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, in the early morning hours of March 14, 2004, Norwalk Police Officers received information that MIMS and others had been engaging in sales of crack cocaine at the Moose Lodge in Norwalk. The information received by the officers further indicated that MIMS was still in the possession of crack cocaine, that he was in the possession of a black handgun and, because it was closing time, that he and his associates were about to leave the Moose Lodge in a particular vehicle to go to Roodner Court, a housing complex in Norwalk.
Upon going to Roodner Court, two responding officers saw the car and the individuals as described. When they approached the vehicle, however, MIMS opened the driver-side rear door and exited the car in an attempt to flee. Officers ordered MIMS to stop, show his hands, and return to the car, and he initially complied. For the next several minutes, however, officers struggled to maintain order and to investigate further as MIMS and his associates each became increasingly resistant and noncompliant with the officers’ requests to keep their hands in sight. Ultimately, back up units arrived and officers were then able to conduct an investigative pat-down for officer safety.
Upon patting down MIMS, officers recovered a black .40 caliber Smith & Wesson Hi-Point semi-automatic pistol, which was loaded with eight rounds of .40 caliber hollow-point ammunition, one round of which was in the chamber. Officers also found a small plastic baggy that contained a distribution quantity of crack cocaine. A search of the passenger compartment of the car also recovered a digital scale in a leather case that was covered with a white powdery residue.
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The Norwalk Housing Authority brought an action to evict Shanee McFadden and her family in connection with the murder of a cab driver at the Roodner Court Housing Complex in Norwalk, Connecticut. The case, “Norwalk Housing Authority v. Shanee McFadden”, Connecticut Superior Court for Stamford/Norwalk at Norwalk, SNSP-031819, was tried on September 19, 2006.
In the case, a cab driver, Ralph Moreau, was shot to death during an attempted robbery on November 13, 2004. Two of the individuals involved in the robbery attempt, Darrell McFadden (son of Shanee McFadden) and Randy Johnson, agreed to cooperate with the State’s murder case against co-conspirator, Rick Felix. McFadden and Johnson testified against Felix last Spring in the murder case, resulting in Felix’s conviction for felony murder in the case of “State of Connecticut v. Rick Felix”, Stamford Superior Court, Docket No. CR-04-0107049. Felix was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the offense.
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In February 2003, KELVIN BURDEN and four other members of his extended family, namely, JERMAIN BUCHANAN, DAVID “DMX” BURDEN, DAVID “QB” BURDEN, and CEDRIC BURDEN were convicted by a jury of federal racketeering and narcotics charges. The evidence at trial revealed that, by at least as early as 1997, KELVIN BURDEN had emerged as the leader of the Burden Organization, which became increasingly well-organized, dominant in the Norwalk drug market, and utilized violence to protect its drug trafficking activities. The Burden Organization supplied drugs to numerous street-level drug dealers operating in various housing projects in Norwalk, including the King Kennedy Housing Project, Carlton Court, the so-called “Hill Section” of Norwalk, Roodner Court, and elsewhere. In addition, the Burden Organization supplied cocaine and cocaine base to numerous persons who sold drugs at Les’ New Moon Café, a bar on Bouton Street in Norwalk, notorious for widespread drug trafficking and violence.
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Michael Askew stood on a street corner outside a Norwalk housing complex with two bags of heroin in his pocket and one goal: score enough money to finance his next crack cocaine fix.
Scoring was all he thought about. He scanned the street for potential customers, as well as competitors. In his mind, he relived the rush of energy, the euphoria, that cocaine always gave him. He had graduated - — or descended — from snorting lines of powdered cocaine to smoking the crack form of the drug. It gave him confidence.
He craved more.
There was nothing remarkable about the blond guy who approached him on the corner of Roodner Court housing complex on May 28, 1989, at 7:45 a.m. He was tall. He was thin. And he was an undercover cop. Two bags of heroin. Forty dollars in crisp bills changing hands. And Askew’s freedom down the drain as the undercover cop’s backup officers snapped handcuffs on his wrists.
“I’ll never forget that day or anything about it. I’m drug-free 17 years and counting now. Since that day, May 28, 1989, I have never had to use any mind-altering or mood-altering drug ever again,” says Askew, 52, a recovering cocaine addict who works with Connecticut Community for Addiction Services, helping other people beat drug problems.
Drugs and criminal activity are not attributes of public housing, Roodner Court, or Norwalk. These same incidents happen all over.
State and federal authorities seized nearly 6,700 marijuana plants worth $28 million from several New Hampshire homes yesterday in what the police are calling the biggest drug bust in the state’s history. To the surprise of even veteran drug investigators, many of the plants were found in upscale homes worth more than $400,000.
“These are not the homes that you’d typically look at and say, ‘That’s a drug house,’ ” said Col. Frederick Booth of the state police. “The sophistication of the operation was surprising. This is a wake-up call for New Hampshire and for those people who think this doesn’t happen in New Hampshire.”
On Dec. 11 at 6:30 p.m., Greenwich police in the Narcotics Section observed on Stone Avenue the selling of both marijuana and cocaine by Christopher W. Federice, 24, of Port Chester, N.Y., to Kyle Mortenson, 19, of 47 Grayrock Drive.
The sale occurred within 1,500 feet of the Greenwich Family Y Child Care, a day care center on St. Roch Avenue in Chickahominy.
Both Federice and Mortenson were charged with possession and sale of marijuana and the sale of cocaine, and for such sales within 1,500 feet of a school site. The two were held in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond with a court date of Dec. 19.
The bust led to separate arrests 15 minutes later on Pemberwick Road of Kenneth C. Romanello, 23, of 63 Pemberwick Road, Apt. A, and Albert A. Santiago, 26, of Port Chester. A search of Romanello’s apartment found a small amount of marijuana, packaging material, and $2,200 in cash. A 2006 Nissan was seized during the arrest of Santiago and Romanello.
Public Housing complexes are often tempting targets for drug dealers because the people who live there are vulnerable to the realities of economics that reinforce poverty. Whether the residents are elderly, disabled, or just poor often the interaction with police and social services tend to happen after something goes wrong. Reactive events shouldn’t be the only time someone in public housing should see a police officer. Other communities have embraced different tactics in addressing the interaction between public housing residents and the police.
Chief Drew Diamond, formerly the Major in charge of Uniform Division West, played a leading role in the development of the Tulsa Police Department’s Plan of Excellence and the Area Commander Plan. As Major of Uniform Division West, he set the example for community policing by personally committing himself to community involvement. Following his leadership, his supervisors developed and implemented several directed-patrols that targeted the drug problem in three of the five minority public housing units within the division boundaries.
All strategies and resources were available to the officers in developing directed-patrol programs to meet the needs of “their” community or neighborhood. One particular directed-patrol program - a foot beat program in crime-ridden housing projects - won the confidence of the fearful residents and set the stage for social change. The complexity of the problems in public housing led to the development of a systematic approach which first called for winning the confidence of the minority tenants who, by tradition, mistrusted the police. The area officers felt that one-on-one contact between the residents and the police was necessary to bridge this gap. As a result, the program the officers developed combined foot patrol and mounted patrol to win the confidence of the fearful tenants and clear the way for aggressive drug enforcement and true freedom for the residents of these complexes.
Officer C.V. Miller wrote in the program statement of the directed-patrol request: “It is common knowledge on the streets that a person can drive through the large parking lots of these complexes…and he will be approached by an individual who will attempt to sell him drugs.” He goes on to say that the majority of the people in the parking lots do not live in the housing complexes and that approximately 80% of the non-residents have arrest histories for firearms and drug violations. Furthermore, the residents of the complex refuse to cooperate with the police or with the management for fear of retaliation by outsiders. The residents are, in fact, hostages within their own neighborhoods.
The final plan called for two pairs of foot patrol officers and one team of mounted officers to be present in the complexes on a rotating basis during the hours of peak activity, 7 pm to 3 am.
The objectives of the officers were:
- to identify the residents of the complexes (the elderly, the youth, the single-parent households), determine their needs, and draw on social service agencies to meet those needs;
- to create an atmosphere of trust and cooperation between the residents and police by fostering a sense of safety and security within the neighborhood;
- to expedite response to calls within the complexes by having officers already in the area;
- to eliminate the street sale of drugs along with the accompanying violence and other criminal activity that is associated with drug selling and using.
In the end, proactive solutions cost less than reactive ones. Maybe its time for the conversation in Norwalk to shift from reactive to proactive. Maybe it has to start with community leaders making Roodner Court residents part of the solution.
