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Bomb case continues to be reviewed
Grand jury remains active in investigation of school district supervisor


First published in print: Saturday, March 7, 2009

SCHENECTADY — A Schenectady County grand jury has voted to indict Steven Raucci, but the indictment remains sealed as the panel weighs additional charges against the Schenectady City School District supervisor accused in fire-bomb reprisal attacks, according to attorneys handling the case.
     
Raucci, 60, of Niskayuna, appeared briefly Friday before Judge Christine Clark in City Court with his attorney, Ronald De Angelus. Outside court, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Sypniewski said the grand jury voted Wednesday to indict Raucci on a charge "related to the terrorism charge." He declined to elaborate.

But the grand jury action Wednesday came a day after authorities brought Raucci into City Court and charged him with a high-level terrorism felony for allegedly targeting Gary DiNola, a popular educator and coach, in 2006. DiNola has since retired.

Police say Raucci put a quarter stick of dynamite on the windshield of a 2004 Jeep Cherokee parked at a home in Clifton Park. A burning cigarette was attached to the fuse, to cause it to explode, according to the criminal complaint. The court paper alleges Raucci did so "with the intent to influence a policy of the unit of government, the Schenectady City School District, by intimidation or coercion."

The alleged Clifton Park bombing is strikingly similar to attacks in Rotterdam and Schodack, where Raucci also faces criminal charges.

Raucci was president of the Civil Service Employees Association local. Police say the alleged attacks, related to union and school business, was aimed at intimidating anyone who crossed him. The defendant, who is unpaid leave from his job as schools facilities supervisor, had a small explosive device in his ..................http://timesunion.com/AspStori.....mp;newsdate=3/7/2009

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SCHENECTADY
No bail for Raucci, judge rules
Prosecution fears alleged arsonist would retaliate
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter

When suspected arsonist Steven Raucci placed an improvised explosive device on a Jeep Cherokee in Clifton Park in November 2006, it was near the end of a city school district power struggle, prosecutors said Monday.
    The suspended city schools director of facilities helped create the dispute and also helped end it, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney wrote in support of a motion to deny Raucci bail.
    “Secure in the knowledge that school district employees were in- gazette.com  timidated by him and that higherups were beholden to him, the defendant engaged in a power struggle that he won,” Carney said.
    School district spokeswoman Karen Corona said the district would not comment on the ongoing investigation and added that Superintendent Eric Ely had not seen the court paperwork.
    District Board of Education President Jeff Janiszewski said he had no comment, other than to say that he was not aware of school officials being “beholden” in any way to Raucci and does not believe they were.
    Raucci last week was charged with the top-level count of terrorism related to the Clifton Park case, and it was on that charge that a bail hearing took place Monday in Schenectady County Court. Raucci had already been charged with arson in Rotterdam and attempted arson in Schodack. He had been in jail since his initial Rotterdam arrest.
    Acting Schenectady County Judge Polly Hoye ruled Monday that Raucci should be held without bail, pending trial.
    Prosecutors have waged a weeks-long battle to keep Raucci behind bars, saying they feared retribution of the type in the terrorism case. No one was hurt in the incident on Hatlee Road, Clifton Park, but prosecutors said they suspect worse would be in the offing had Raucci been released on bail.
    Included in Carney’s argument were allegations that Raucci has continued to make threats since his arrest, allegedly telling a fellow Saratoga County Jail inmate that he knew who wore a wire against him and that person “has no idea of who he is dealing with.”
    Carney stated Raucci won the school district power struggle, retaining complete control over school facilities and the 125 people who worked under him. Carney wrote that the school employee who was Raucci’s target in the Clifton Park incident decided to retire during the power struggle because the school district failed to support him.
    The cause of the dispute was not spelled out in Carney’s argument. Neither was how higher-ups could be “beholden” to Raucci.
    The terrorism charge was based on a supporting deposition provided by Gary DiNola. At the time of the incident, DiNola was winding up 33 years as a coach in many sports, including varsity basketball, and as athletic director. He retired in 2007.
    Carney argued that Raucci be held based on the weight of the evidence against him and his risk of flight.
    The terrorism count and an earlier first-degree arson count are supported by Raucci’s own words to others and on apparently surreptitiously made recordings, according to court papers.
    Carney also revealed that Raucci is suspected in at least 13 separate incidents involving either explosives or vandalism and more that are simply too old to prosecute.
    Carney argued to Hoye that the 60-year-old with no criminal record be held without bail, calling men he’d encountered.
    Carney argued that at least six of the incidents involved bombs or explosive devices. “We’re not talking about fireworks, we’re talking about improvised explosive devices,” Carney told Hoye.
    Carney also argued that Raucci has told others, even before he was arrested, that he wouldn’t die in prison.
    “Should he get out, he would be a grave threat to the community, the safety of others and himself,” Carney said.
    Prosecutors have been trying to keep Raucci in jail since his initial Feb. 20 arrest on the Rotterdam arson charge. He was released on $200,000 bond in that case, only to be rearrested on a 2007 Schodack attempted arson count.
    Released there, he was taken to Clifton Park and then on to Schenectady. It was during the Saratoga County stay that Raucci allegedly made the threat.
    Raucci’s attorney Monday afternoon expressed surprise at the swift bail decision from Hoye.
    Ronald DeAngelus had requested a hearing to cross-examine Raucci’s accusers, something prosecutors have consistently refused to allow by canceling hearings and moving on to a new charge.
    DeAngelus noted that he doesn’t even know the accusers’ names because they were removed from paperwork provided him.
    “It’s sort of unfair. We don’t know how to even attack it or question it,” DeAngelus said.
    “We’re not going away though,” he said. “I hope that they’ll indict him quickly and then we’ll take them on.”
    A new bail hearing could be held after an indictment is handed up.
    Earlier, DeAngelus took issue with Carney’s comments on uncharged crimes. In his own 50-year career, he said, he hasn’t seen a bail hearing touch on so many uncharged crimes.
    “The DA can talk forever about uncharged crimes, but the crime before the court is not even an A-1 felony. It’s based on an attempted arson third in Clifton Park,” DeAngelus told Hoye.
    But Carney said that the terrorism count, rather, is based on a weapons possession count, which makes it a top-level count. The grand jury is still working, but has voted an indictment, according to Carney.
    Carney also told of one incident where Raucci is suspected of bombing a Ford Mustang. Raucci is believed to have targeted the car because he concluded its owner used a key to scratch Raucci’s car at the Rotterdam Square mall, Carney said.
    He targeted the car a year after the alleged scratching incident, Carney said. Raucci has not been charged in that incident and Carney did not provide an incident date. Carney said later that prosecutors know of the incident because Raucci told it to three separate people.
    Authorities, however, have not been able to locate police reports to support the story. He hoped ...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00102

Some of the highest paid TEACHERS in NYS topped out at around $120,000 in a study I read from back in 2000... so for a district of Schenectady's size, it's definitely not unusual...I wonder what that number is at now.  Just an FYI, papa....certainly not a defense!

He brought dynamite into Mt. Pleasant Middle School and has not been terminated.  STILL SUSPENDED! School Bored members should immediately resign in disgrace. After a $8 MILLION lawsuit by a fellow janitor "nobody knew from nuthin". Give us a break-nothing unusual here-ha-ha-a janitor getting $129,000 a year and worked every weekend. With everyone looking the other way-what problems? Shocked-surprised-but still no resignations.

  He could have made more money in the private sector but wanted to work with our children. This story has so many layers and confirms what many of us already knew about the bottom of the barrel Schenectady School System. You don't get in the bottom 1% of the State by accident. Education is the absolute lowest priority.

What a joke Schenectady schools are. A sad joke.

Its not funny no more. More working together never works. The School Boreds have become a socialist training grounds for higher elective office. Resignations should be flying like a December snow-but nobody knows nuthin.

Of course there are some very good teachers, janitors or whatever, that are employed by our school systems. However, when you adda 'union' to the mix, you will continually see the 'bad apples' being protected and jeopardizing the reputation of all of them. This happens on a daily basis with all unionized jobs. And they don't have to be public unionized jobs either.

Unions have supplied a need that has long seen it's day. I say break them all!

Quoted from bumblethru

Of course there are some very good teachers, janitors or whatever, that are employed by our school systems. However, when you adda 'union' to the mix, you will continually see the 'bad apples' being protected and jeopardizing the reputation of all of them. This happens on a daily basis with all unionized jobs. And they don't have to be public unionized jobs either.

Unions have supplied a need that has long seen it's day. I say break them all!

ya  blame the unions  for this scumbag..ok  bum

Oh come on BG, everyone knows that there are bad apples in unions just like this 'scumbag' as you refer. And we can all see how difficult it is to not only discipline them, but to also get rid of them.

I don't think that it is incentive enough for the good union employees, when they see their co-worker get away with everything with no consequences.

You are clearly a union supporter, so this union behavior finds acceptance in your eyes.

Quoted from bumblethru

Oh come on BG, everyone knows that there are bad apples in unions just like this 'scumbag' as you refer. And we can all see how difficult it is to not only discipline them, but to also get rid of them.

I don't think that it is incentive enough for the good union employees, when they see their co-worker get away with everything with no consequences.

You are clearly a union supporter, so this union behavior finds acceptance in your eyes.

I Think  this idiot should of been fired weeks ago.....if i do remember correctly you are the one that stated  there is something "fishy " going on here..so do not sit behind your computer with your little name "bumble" and tell me that i find this behavior ok

Quoted from 210

Some of the highest paid TEACHERS in NYS topped out at around $120,000 in a study I read from back in 2000... so for a district of Schenectady's size, it's definitely not unusual...I wonder what that number is at now.  Just an FYI, papa....certainly not a defense!

\\\


He was making 50K a year in overtime.  He supervised janitors.  You think out of the 100 employees he supervised, there wasn't a capable employee that could have handled the 50k worth of work Raucci did after hours???  130K a year for what?  Writing memos to his secretary to "dress pleasingly....."? For blowing out the AD's windshield?  For grabbing Ron Kriss' crotch? For arranging work done at his own home?  For arranging workers to campaign for school board members at time and a half?

Yea, sorry I have to disagree with ya.  I think he was slightly overpaid.

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DA: Years of intimidation Carney issues report to keep Raucci locked up

BY STEVEN COOK
Gazette Reporter

Excerpts from a letter allegedly written by Steven Raucci on school letterhead to a female employee on conditions of her appointment:


  The threats, notes and damage were occurring with greater frequency. The wife tried to calm herself through psychotherapy sessions. The husband kept a shotgun under the bed.    Any noise at night brought visions of Steven Raucci breaking into the house to harm them or plant explosives.
    “I spent two tours in Vietnam and I’m more scared now than I was in Vietnam,” the man told state police investigators this year. “I don’t want to give the satisfaction to Steve knowing this, but this is what he has done to our lives. He is nothing but a terrorist who bullies those in order to get his way.”
    The account — witness’s name removed — was included this week as part of an effort by prosecutors to keep alleged arsonist Steven Raucci behind bars pending trial on a host of charges, including arson and terrorism.
    Since the Feb. 20 arrest of the city schools director of facilities, authorities say they have been inundated with similar stories of fear and intimidation by Raucci during his tenure at the district.
    Many agreed to speak, but feared Raucci would find out and retaliate and hurt someone this time, according to prosecutors. The accounts have included active retaliation, threats, intimidation and even sexual harassment. In one instance, Raucci allegedly wrote a sexually harassing and demeaning memo on school letterhead.
    The Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office submitted a voluminous file of new information this week in its effort to keep Raucci locked up without bail pending trial.
    Raucci’s attorney has denied all the accusations on behalf of his client, calling the release of information unfair. He said they don’t even know how to attack the information as names of the accusers have been redacted.
HISTORY OF INCIDENTS
    The 60-year-old Raucci, suspended without pay, is suspected in more than a dozen incidents that prosecutors believe can be prosecuted, and others that may simply be too old to prosecute. He would damage cars of people who sim- ply disagreed with him, slashing tires, damaging paint or blowing windshields out, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney wrote. One couple reported their car being vandalized fi ve times and said that Raucci had publicly denounced the husband.
    Raucci allegedly threatened to kill at least five people. One man told police he was so afraid, he attempted suicide.
    No one was ever injured, but the possibility was there, officials said. The top-level arson count alleges the detonation of an explosive device at the door of an occupied Rotterdam home in 2001.
    The Rotter- Raucci
dam incident is
the earliest one charged. Two others have been alleged dating to 2006 in Clifton Park and 2007 in Schodack.
    The 2006 and 2007 are allegedly linked, not only through the method — a cigarette fuse — but also by other evidence.
    Forensic evidence directly links Raucci to the Schodack attempt, Carney wrote. Prosecutors also believe the Schodack device can be linked to the Clifton Park one.
    Raucci, who lives in Niskayuna, has no criminal history, something that he has bragged about to friends, Carney wrote in paperwork opposing bail, “not because of his non-involvement in crime, but by reason of the many acts … which he has gotten away with over the years.”
    Allegations against Raucci of violence against people, more particularly property, date back 43 years. That effort “by his own admissions, has continued unabated since then,” Carney wrote.
    His tenure as an employee with the Schenectady City School District is 36 years. He eventually rose to the position of director of facilities, making a salary of more than $79,000 that ballooned to more than $129,000 with overtime.
    One of the main questions underlying the case has been, with all the allegations now surfacing against him, how could it have gone on so long?
    Carney suggested Tuesday Raucci was meticulous.
    “I think he was both careful not to get caught doing anything and he largely succeeded in intimidating people from coming forward,” Carney said.
    Sometimes the link between him and his alleged targets was tangential at best, Carney said.
    There are allegations, from a former employee with a lawsuit against the district, that Raucci had close ties to the district’s head of human resources.
    District officials have said little. Superintendent Eric Ely, who joined the district in mid-2004 and took the top job a year later, has said rumors swirled about Raucci and his activities with the union. But he could only remember one specific allegation that came in 2004. Ely recommended the employee contact police.
    He also said he has not had a lot of formal complaints against Raucci, but they would have been turned over to the district’s human resources department for an investigation.
FEDERAL LAWSUIT
    In his federal lawsuit against the district and Raucci, former district employee Ronald Kriss says in an affidavit that the director of human resources, Michael Stricos, would purchase gifts for Raucci, one being a photo of Marlon Brando from “The Godfather,” which Raucci displayed prominently.
    Kriss included the anecdote in his affidavit before arguing that his own sexual harassment claim never went anywhere, despite a workers’ compensation ruling in his favor.
    Stricos declined to comment Tuesday through a district spokeswoman, citing the ongoing investigation.
    At the heart of Kriss’ federal suit are allegations of sexual harassment. Raucci allegedly touched employees inappropriately in an effort at intimidation.
    Kriss argued he suffers from irritable bowel syndrome and an anxiety disorder. Raucci, he alleged, made demeaning comments toward him as a result.
    The suit was filed in February 2008, nearly two years after Kriss’ work stopped at the district.
    For at least the last five years, Raucci has served as not only the director of facilities, overseeing more than 100 district employees, but also as president of those employees’ union.
    The situation created problems, especially when the concerns were about the boss, Raucci himself, according to one employee, who asked that her name not be used.
    “You’ve got to complain to him about him?” she asked. “How can you be for me and against me at the same time?”
    She also alleged Raucci had her put in for overtime after making political calls. She said she voluntarily made the calls off-hours, and Raucci offered later for her to put in for overtime. She accepted, fearing offending him.
    “Superiors regularly refused to contravene his decisions so employees knew they had no recourse,” Carney wrote.
    A representative of the state CSEA declined to comment Tuesday. The CSEA Local 847 has since been placed under administratorship by the state organization.
    Carney alleged that Raucci required employees to engage in political meetings and union meetings during work hours. Other employees were required to perform work on his personal residence.
    Other allegations include harassing..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00100

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Raucci right where he belongs, no thanks to Ely

    The more allegations that surface against Schenectady school facilities director Steven Raucci, the more justified District Attorney Robert Carney’s extreme effort to hold Raucci in jail before trial has become.
    It’s not that Raucci seems like a huge flight risk, it’s that his welldocumented penchant for “getting even” poses a serious safety concern for anyone who’s complained about him since he was first arrested Feb. 20 — or anyone he might suspect of doing so. To hear Carney tell it, one list is quite long, the other might be even longer.
    And there’s no question that, given Raucci’s reputation — which many school employees were aware of years before his arrest — the people who’ve come forward are nervous about what might happen to them if he were let loose. Given what’s been revealed by prosecutors thus far, and what Raucci has been charged with, holding him in jail seems a wise course. If he’s truly being wronged, as his attorney suggests, he can sue after he’s acquitted.
    Something else that’s gotten harder to believe as this story unfolds is that Schenectady school district officials had little idea what was going on with Raucci, or knew but did nothing. (Rather, they just watched as he padded his paycheck with unconscionable amounts of overtime.)
    Raucci’s repeated, severe................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00503

Quoted from B GAGE

I Think  this idiot should of been fired weeks ago.....if i do remember correctly you are the one that stated  there is something "fishy " going on here..so do not sit behind your computer with your little name "bumble" and tell me that i find this behavior ok

Do  you also remember me stating  how I was on a jury once and how our first reaction was to hang the bast**d....when in fact after all of the facts were in, he was clearly innocent.

Not all of us had 'inside' information like some others do on this message board.

Quoted from bumblethru

Do  you also remember me stating  how I was on a jury once and how our first reaction was to hang the bast**d....when in fact after all of the facts were in, he was clearly innocent.

Not all of us had 'inside' information like some others do on this message board.

I had the same info that you had