Jason Julian pleads guilty to ‘environmental crime’ in Connecticut Co-owner of quarrying firm under dispute in Chester

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Jason Julian, whose firm Julian Materials operates three quarries in Chester that have been the subject of many complaints, pleaded guilty on Friday to six misdemeanor charges in a Connecticut court.

The charges, brought by the State of Connecticut, say that Julian illegally disposed of fill containing hazardous materials including PCBs, heavy metals and other carcinogens in public areas of the town of Fairfield including parks and Penfield Beach.

The plea deal will see Julian serve 18 months in prison and pay a $2.5 million fine according to an article in CTPost.com.

The original set of charges  included 16 felonies and one misdemeanor. But in the end Julian was allowed to plead to just six charges that were reduced to misdemeanors. Those were:

• collecting, treating and disposing of “certain materials and wastes” without a permit,
• two counts of illegally disposing of materials containing PCBs and
• three counts of discharging materials into the waters of Connecticut.

The charges arose out of Julian’s company managing a fill pile at the town-owned Fairfield Transfer Station between 2013 and 2016. The charges alleged that his company dumped contaminated soils there, then sold the soil for use on public lands including Penfield Beach Pavilion. In addition to Julian, a number of town employees have been charged with various related offenses. Last November, Joseph Michelangelo, the town’s former public works director, pleaded guilty to related charges according to a Division of Criminal Justice press release.

Michelangelo admitted that he and other Fairfield officials participated in a pattern of activities that included a conspiracy between themselves and a contractor they hired to operate part of the DPW property. The DPW site and other locations became a dumping ground for unauthorized, contaminated and hazardous materials. Michelangelo testified against Fairfield Superintendent of Public Works Scott Bartlett, who was convicted on similar charges in July of this year and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Julian’s plea was made under the Alford Doctrine in which the defendant pleads guilty because the evidence is sufficient for the prosecution to get a conviction, but he does not admit to the wrongdoing and maintains his innocence. This can be part of a strategy to defend against civil suits.

“You know I still find you guilty?” asked Superior Court Judge Tracey Lee Dayton at Julian’s hearing, according to the CTPost report.

“Yes, your honor,” Julian responded.

“This was the largest and most costly environmental crime in the history of the state,” said Dayton. Estimates published by several sources say the cleanup could run as high as $40 million, much more than the $2.5 million he is ordered to pay.

According to a Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice press release, Julian, 54, will be sentenced on Jan. 29, 2024.

Julian’s connection to Chester

Julian Materials, which is owned by Jason and Andrew Julian, has operated several quarries in the Gassetts area of Chester and is currently asking the town for a conditional use permit to operate those quarries.

The Julian company bought the two quarries on Rt. 103 North in March 2018 and the Chandler Road quarry in February 2019, according to the town’s grand list.

The Rt. 103 quarries are under Act 250 jurisdiction but the North quarry’s permit expired in 2014. The Chandler quarry predates Chester’s zoning but the Julian organization got a town permit to build a storage shed there, then set it up with stone cutting machinery in violation of the permit.

Since then, the State of Vermont has issued an opinion that puts all three sites under an Act 250 jurisdiction.

Neighbors have complained that one quarry was operated beyond the life of its state permit, that the frequent use of a hydraulic stone hammer is a nuisance, that Julian employees have trespassed and worked on others’ property and that the company routinely dumps stone dust into the Dean Brook, killing fish downstream. The conditional use permit application addresses a number of the complaints with mitigation measures, but neighbors have said they don’t trust the Julians to follow through or the town to enforce the terms of the permits.

Recently, the Julian organization has asked to amend its application “to further reduce impacts of the project(s) on the neighborhood,” according to an engineer hired by the company. The next hearing in the matter is set for Monday, Jan. 22, 2024.