Salesman pleads guilty in Galante case

A former salesman for Danbury trash hauler James Galante became the latest Galante associate to plead guilty to charges stemming from the federal investigation of the carting business in western Connecticut and eastern New York state.

Anthony Lucian, 50, of Westport, pleaded guilty in federal court in New Haven to one count of conspiring to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). He admitted that while he was a salesman at Galante”™s Automated Waste Disposal Inc. he conspired to perpetuate a system that the government said destroys free enterprise, allows carters to artificially inflate their prices and leaves waste-removal customers with no options. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced Nov. 6.

So far 33 individuals and 10 businesses have been indicted for various federal offences stemming from the investigation. Galante is one of seven defendants who have not yet accepted plea bargains. He is under house arrest at his New Fairfield home.

In another case, the former manager of a Mount Kisco, N.Y., trash transfer station was sentenced to two years probation and a $3,000 fine for his part in conspiring to violate RICO. Scott McGowan, 38, of Yonkers, N.Y., was Allied Waste”™s manager of the Westchester County Transfer Station in Mount Kisco. He confessed to preventing a competing trash hauler from using the transfer station, accepting eight luxury box tickets to a New York Giants football game from a co-conspirator and promising to lock out the trash hauler from the transfer station.