QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Not all of Pastore’s 400-page deposition was played for the jury; both parties selected portions to be put into the record. One omitted section involved (Defence Attorney Brustin asking Pastore whether he believes Morant and Lewis were guilty. “Do I believe they’re guilty?” responded Pastore. “They’re guilty of something. Okay? I don’t know what it could be. Just basic knowledge in those type of things, you know.”
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The proceedings are part of a federal civil-rights case called Stefon Morant v. City of New Haven. Morant is suing New Haven and a group of former city detectives for allegedly framing him and Scott Lewis for the 1990 double murder of former alderman Ricardo Turner and his partner Lamont Fields. U.S. District Court Judge Sarala Nagala is presiding over the case. Pastore was named as a defendant in Morant’s original lawsuit. Morant and Lewis have long claimed that they were framed by Raucci because of a drug debt. Last week, Lewis testified that he owed thousands of dollars to the notorious drug kingpin Frank Parise. He said Raucci supported Parise’s drug operation, including by warning him of upcoming police raids."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Pastore’s deposition — which took place on Jan. 16, 2024 and Jan. 24, 2024 — made clear that he was made aware of Raucci’s drug use during his tenure as chief. (Pastore, a groundbreaking supporter of community police, was New Haven’s police chief from 1990 to 1997.) “Did you receive information from a variety of sources that Raucci was using illegal drugs?” asked one of Morant’s attorneys, Nick Brustin, per the recording played in court on Monday. “I think that was common knowledge based on — they came to know by investigating him,” replied Pastore. He later said “members of [Raucci’s] family and other police officers” reported seeing Raucci use drugs. “Did you also come to believe that [Raucci] was involved in illicit drug activity, either protecting drug dealers or being involved in drug dealing?” pressed Brustin. “Well it’s hand-in-glove, yeah,” responded Pastore. “Just the nature of the people that he [Raucci] ran with tells you a lot,” Pastore added later in the deposition."
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STORY: "Now deceased chief describes detectives drug connections," by Reporter Mona Mahadevan, published by The New Haven Independent, on May 18, 2026.
GIST: "Former Police Chief Nicholas Pastore — who died a year and a half ago — spoke up in a federal courtroom Monday about how, in the 1990s, he knew that one of his detectives “was running with the wrong people and also using drugs.”
A recording of Pastore making that statement about former city Det. Vincent Raucci was played aloud during an ongoing wrongful-conviction trial brought about by Stefon Morant.
The former police chief died in September 2024; a recording of his sworn testimony, taken in January 2024, was played in a Hartford courtroom on Thursday and Monday.
Click here and here to read Pastore’s deposition in full.
The proceedings are part of a federal civil-rights case called Stefon Morant v. City of New Haven. Morant is suing New Haven and a group of former city detectives for allegedly framing him and Scott Lewis for the 1990 double murder of former alderman Ricardo Turner and his partner Lamont Fields. U.S. District Court Judge Sarala Nagala is presiding over the case. Pastore was named as a defendant in Morant’s original lawsuit.
Morant and Lewis have long claimed that they were framed by Raucci because of a drug debt. Last week, Lewis testified that he owed thousands of dollars to the notorious drug kingpin Frank Parise. He said Raucci supported Parise’s drug operation, including by warning him of upcoming police raids.
Earlier in the trial, Raucci’s ex-wife, Donna Desai, stated that she saw Raucci using cocaine and believed he was dealing. She said he once told her that “nobody could hurt him” because he had dirt on people in the department.
Ovil Ruiz — an unreliable witness who played a key role in the state’s cases against Morant and Lewis — also told the court that he used to do drugs and get high with Raucci.Patricia Roberts, who spoke to the FBI in the 1990s, recalled smoking crack cocaine while Raucci did lines on at least six different occasions.
In response to those allegations, Raucci has denied all wrongdoing, claiming to have never used cocaine. He maintains that he never engaged in illicit drug activity, even after being charged in 2024 for trafficking controlled substances, and even after the FBI spent a year investigating him for allegedly dealing drugs.
Pastore’s deposition — which took place on Jan. 16, 2024 and Jan. 24, 2024 — made clear that he was made aware of Raucci’s drug use during his tenure as chief. (Pastore, a groundbreaking supporter of community police, was New Haven’s police chief from 1990 to 1997.)
“Did you receive information from a variety of sources that Raucci was using illegal drugs?” asked one of Morant’s attorneys, Nick Brustin, per the recording played in court on Monday.
“I think that was common knowledge based on — they came to know by investigating him,” replied Pastore. He later said “members of [Raucci’s] family and other police officers” reported seeing Raucci use drugs.
“Did you also come to believe that [Raucci] was involved in illicit drug activity, either protecting drug dealers or being involved in drug dealing?” pressed Brustin.
“Well it’s hand-in-glove, yeah,” responded Pastore. “Just the nature of the people that he [Raucci] ran with tells you a lot,” Pastore added later in the deposition.
In 1997, Pastore resigned from his position as police chief in scandal. At the time, he told the press that he had fathered a child with a 24-year-old prostitute. (During the 2024 deposition, Brustin said multiple police officers testified that Pastore frequently had sex with prostitutes. Pastore denied those allegations and said he did not know the woman was a prostitute.)
In the video that played in court on Monday, Brustin pushed Pastore to explain why the department never addressed Raucci’s alleged involvement with illicit drug activity. In 1996, he said, the police department suspended Raucci for striking a man in the face with the butt end of a rifle, falsifying his overtime records, and sleeping with a woman who was not his wife on the job. Brustin asked why no drug-related offenses were added to Raucci’s list of charges.
Pastore claimed that Brustin was mischaracterizing the extent of the allegations. He said one of the charges was related to illicit drug activity, even though the word “drug” did not appear in the memo.
Either way, Raucci retired in 1996 in good standing and with a full pension.
Former FBI agent Brian Donnelly testified earlier in Morant’s civil-rights trial that the agency initiated an investigation into Raucci after multiple people told the FBI that he participated in the drug trade. Donnelly said the FBI had planned a sting operation to expose Raucci’s alleged partnership with Parise. Before they could execute their plan, however, Donnelly said someone tipped off Raucci. The FBI did not investigate who might have warned him.
In the 2024 deposition recording, Brustin accused Pastore of informing Raucci about the investigation and instructing him to stay clear of known drug houses.
“Why did you choose to warn Det. Raucci to stay out of” drug-trafficking locations? asked Brustin.
“Could be a variety of reasons,” responded Pastore. He walked back that statement later in his deposition, saying he did not tip off Raucci. “Why would I do that?” he asked.
Aside from discussing Raucci’s alleged involvement with the cocaine trade, Brustin pushed Pastore on whether the police department in the 1990s had a culture of fabricating evidence and coercing witnesses. In response to many of the incidents outlined by Brustin, Pastore said there could be a good reason for the apparent misconduct — even if he could not name those reasons during his deposition.
For example, referencing one of the allegations against Raucci, Brustin asked, “As a detective, you’re not allowed to break somebody’s nose with the butt of a shotgun unless there is justification for using force; fair to say?”
“Usually that’s the norm of things. But there’s exceptions,” replied Pastore.
At another point, Brustin referenced the allegations that Raucci “repeatedly threaten[ed]” Ovil Ruiz to provide information about the homicide. “Would that ever be appropriate in 1990 and 1991 under the rules and regulations of the department?”
“I don’t know,” responded Pastore. “In this situation, it must have been.” He explained that he could not determine whether a threat was appropriate without knowing more information.
Not all of Pastore’s 400-page deposition was played for the jury; both parties selected portions to be put into the record. One omitted section involved Brustin asking Pastore whether he believes Morant and Lewis were guilty.
“Do I believe they’re guilty?” responded Pastore. “They’re guilty of something. Okay? I don’t know what it could be. Just basic knowledge in those type of things, you know.”
The entire story can be read at:
//www.newhavenindependent.org/2026/05/18/now-deceased-chief-describes-detectives-drug-connections/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog. FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."Lawyer Radha Natarajan: Executive Director: New England Innocence Project; FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true;
