MILFORD — Dardian Celaj, the Albanian national and six-time convicted felon who skipped out on sentencing last August for a 2012 rape at a Derby nightclub, did not pick up any additional prison time Thursday when he was sentenced in Superior Court for failing to appear at the sentencing.
Judge Frank A. Iannotti on Thursday handed down a four-year prison sentence to Celaj to run concurrently with the 14-year sentence Celaj received in September for the sexual assault of an employee at his nightclub, Club Europa, after it closed for the night on March 2, 2012.
Under a plea deal worked out last year, Celaj, 38, had faced up to eight years in prison, but he fled, despite court-ordered, round-the-clock GPS monitoring. Iannotti warned Celaj when he took the plea last April that the deal would be withdrawn if he skipped the Aug. 1 sentencing. Celaj also failed to show up in court in August for an unrelated arrest in Seymour, prompting a nearly month-long search for him.
State officials investigated how they lost track of Celaj, and the probe resulted in changes in how violations of GPS monitoring are reported by the state's GPS 24-hour monitoring service.
"We had a good process in place before this, but it wasn't followed to the T, so we made some modifications to try and tighten it up," said Gary Roberge, director of adult probation and bail services in the court support services division.
Roberge said probation officers are now notified by the 24-hour monitoring center about all — not just the most serious — GPS violations via text. If a text is not responded to by a primary officer, the center will then notify a secondary officer. If the secondary officer does not respond, then a supervisor is notified.
State officials also are now doing monthly reviews of how officers responded to notifications about GPS violations, Roberge said.
Officers are also now working with victim advocates in the state to notify victims about GPS monitoring violations, he said.
Federal authorities found Celaj hiding out in Naugatuck on Aug. 28, 2014, nearly a month after he failed to show up at sentencing. Celaj was supposed to be monitored with a GPS ankle bracelet until being sentenced, but he managed to remove the device.
State prosecutors were so concerned about Celaj's criminal record — federal prosecutors charged that he took part years ago in violent home invasions that they said were tied to New York's Genovese crime family — that they pushed multiple times in 2012 and again this past April for deportation proceedings for him.
Celaj took a plea deal shortly after the case went to trial. The victim testified at trial that Celaj pulled her by her hair and sexually assaulted her while she begged him to stop. The victim escaped after Celaj, who was drunk, passed out.
Celaj pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree sexual assault in the middle of the victim's testimony. He entered the plea under the Alford doctrine, meaning that he did not admit guilt but conceded that there was probably enough evidence to convict him at trial.
Stephan E. Seeger, Celaj's attorney, said Thursday that Celaj plans to appeal.
Celaj was sentenced in federal court in 2011 to time served after pleading guilty to robbery and firearms charges. A grand jury indictment handed up in the Southern District of New York charged Celaj with committing armed home invasions in Orange County, N.Y., and Morris County, N.J.
According to the 2007 federal indictment, Celaj and other men were hired by the Genovese family to break into the homes of wealthy residents and steal money and valuables.
In the New Jersey home invasion, the men broke into the victim's home and tied up the victim, the victim's wife and the victim's housekeeper. The victim was pistol-whipped before the men escaped with "several hundred thousand dollars" worth of cash, collectible coins, jewelry and guns, according to a Sept. 17, 2008, press release from federal prosecutors in New York.
A portion of the proceeds was given to Genovese family captain, or "capo," Angelo Prisco as a "tribute," the press release said.