A scathing report into how town officials in Bethany handled allegations of sexual abuse in a town-run camp found that First Selectwoman Paula Cofrancesco deceived Bethany residents and failed to protect local children from an alleged abuser — then resisted efforts to make those programs safer. 

The report, released Thursday following an independent seven-month investigation, also asserts that Connecticut State Police committed an “unexplained failure” by taking 15 months to seek arrest warrants for Anthony Mastrangelo, a town employee who allegedly sexually assaulted four girls, despite having probable cause to do so. During that 15-month period, a fifth victim was allegedly sexually assaulted. 

The report, prepared by former Superior Court Judge Robert L. Holzberg, now with the Pullman & Comley law firm, comes as Connecticut legislators are in the midst of debating a controversial bill that would require municipal camps to be licensed by the state. Currently, camps in Connecticut that are run by towns and cities receive no state oversight and aren’t required to comply with even basic regulations that private camps must abide by, like conducting staff background checks and testing water quality. 

“If this [report] isn’t a manifesto for the need to pass Senate Bill 6 this session, I don’t know what is,” Sen. Jorge Cabrera, D-Hamden, whose district includes Bethany, told The Connecticut Mirror. “We may never have a better reason, detailed for us in black and white. I want to use the word ‘shocking’ to describe what was uncovered in Bethany, but it goes beyond that. The callousness. The disregard. Utter incompetence. Basic, basic safety rules not adhered to. They can’t find reports and training manuals. And I love my cities and towns, but I wonder — what if we scratched a little deeper into more municipal programs? What would we find? Would we find excellence? Competence? Or more problems?”

Cofrancesco was among the voices of opposition when a similar bill was proposed in 2023. At the time, she argued that municipal camps already received enough oversight, including from elected leaders like herself.

But, according to the report, Bethany’s Parks and Recreation Department was in disarray at the time Cofrancesco provided written testimony against the bill, and she didn’t know if counselors there received background checks or safety training at all. According to the report, the department “had no filing or record-keeping system, written safety policies, or documented training protocols for its staff.” According to an interview in the report with Cofrancesco’s assistant, no background checks were conducted until 2024.

Cofrancesco did not respond to a request for comment. When asked for comment by reporters after the report came out on Thursday, she responded, “Not right now, thank you.”

State Police Col. Daniel Loughman said in a statement that he agreed with the report’s claim that Cofrancesco did not demand answers about the investigation before May 2024, and that Cofrancesco never sought a meeting with the state police after May 2024.

But the statement did not address the report’s concerns about the 15-month span between the beginning of the investigation and Mastrangelo’s arrest.

Gina Teixiera, a member of the Bethany Board of Selectmen, told the CT Mirror that Cofrancesco should resign.

“I feel that it’s a fiduciary duty, given the liability she’s created for this town,” she said.

In a statement, Teixiera and Robert Brinton, the other member of the board of selectmen, said Cofrancesco’s behavior was “inexcusable.”

“The report reveals a First Selectwoman more concerned about her own self-interest and that of her family and friends, including the alleged child sex-abuser, than the safety of the children in our community,” the statement reads. “This is inexcusable. Her repeated deception of not only the members of the Board of Selectmen, but also all of the residents of the Town of Bethany, at meeting after meeting, is a betrayal from a person in a position of trust.”

Cofrancesco’s “leadership failures have harmed the Town of Bethany and exposed us to legal liability on multiple fronts,” it continues. “Town residents deserve answers about why municipal laptops and phones were deleted in violation of Connecticut Freedom of Information statutes.

“Also, the residents of the Town of Bethany need answers about the unexplained, lengthy delay by the Connecticut State Police to make any arrest even after having sufficient probable cause in a case involving child sex abuse. This delay was supported by Paula Cofrancesco, who failed to communicate with the Connecticut State Police in any way, to request any information about the matter even after falsely saying she had tried to get answers from them many times,” the statement reads.

‘That claim is contradicted’

The report begins its timeline in December of 2022, when Bethany superintendent Kai Byrd learned that a parent would be filing a report with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) against Mastrangelo, a camp counselor, substitute teacher, after school program employee and frequent babysitter for local children. 

According to the report, Cofrancesco was informed by David Merriam, the administrative lieutenant for the Bethany Resident Trooper’s Office, of the nature of the allegations against Mastrangelo and that the Connecticut State Police were also investigating the matter. But after the allegations became public in 2024, Cofrancesco repeatedly insisted that she did not know the sexual nature of the allegations until much later. 

The report alleges that she was lying.

“Corroborating e-mails and text messages [demonstrate] that the First Selectman, despite her denials, knew the specific nature of the allegations against Mastrangelo as early as December 23, 2022,” the report states.

“While the First Selectman still denies having actual knowledge … of the specific allegations against Mastrangelo, that claim is contradicted by multiple credible witnesses,” the report states.

The report indicates that, rather than alert the town about the allegations or fire Mastrangelo, Cofrancesco’s response was to keep quiet and ensure that Mastrangelo — a family friend — remained employed in the basement of Town Hall, adjacent to the Parks and Recreation complex, and later at her husband’s insurance firm. 

“Curiously, she acknowledged that she never attempted to speak to Mastrangelo about the allegations or reach out to DCF, the State Police, or Town Counsel about the allegations,” the report states.  

Cofrancesco also did not pursue any improvements of safety procedures in those programs after the allegations came to light and even denied requests from other staff members to install security cameras, according to the report. 

Even when Cofrancesco became aware that DCF had confirmed at least two allegations against Mastrangelo, she failed to “implement background checks of all Parks and Rec employees; direct an immediate and comprehensive review of Parks and Rec Programs and policies,” pursue safety measures for children, or even seek the advice of the town attorney, according to the report.

The report, which goes on for 28 pages and includes another 200 pages of appendices, was a massive undertaking for Holzberg, a retired judge of 32 years who has a reputation both as a skilled mediator and investigator. Holzberg also conducted independent investigations into sexual assault allegations at Stamford High School and the Bridgeport Archdiocese, where he identified 281 victims of sexual abuse by 71 priests dating back to 1953. 

For the Bethany report, Holzberg and his team of three lawyers spent seven months on the investigation and interviewed 48 witnesses and reviewed more than 125,000 emails and phone records. 

At one point, the former judge quoted a witness comparing Bethany to “Mayberry,” the fictional town in the 1960s-era Andy Griffith Show, where town employees are all related to each other. For example, the report said Cofrancesco is the cousin by marriage of the former Director of Parks and Recreation, Janice Howard; She is also the aunt by marriage of a Parks and Recreation Department employee, Anthony Cofrancesco, who was friends with Mastrangelo.

The report details concerns among other town staff about Mastrangelo’s continued employment and presence in town facilities.

In the report, a transcript of a text message exchange between Howard and Cofrancesco shows that Howard didn’t want to be blamed for Mastrangelo’s continued work in a town facility after DCF and CSP launched their investigations. Howard writes, “you guys made the decision. Because that is how it happened and I want to make sure that is how it was relayed.”

The report also notes that Bethany Schools Superintendent Kai Byrd took immediate action after she learned that a report was to be filed with DCF, firing Mastrangelo as a substitute teacher and banning him from school property.

Holzberg notes that several parties were uncooperative with the Bethany investigation, including former leadership of the parks and recreation staff, whom the report accuses of deleting emails and text messages, and Connecticut State Police, which also denied Holzberg’s request to review its investigative file or provide an explanation for its delay in seeking warrants for Mastrangelo’s arrests. Cofrancesco also withheld text messages from Holzberg.

In a letter to Holzberg, Loughman cited the pending criminal case as to why police would not cooperate.

Holzberg concludes that, “the unexplained failure of the Connecticut State Police’s Bethany Troop I to seek arrest warrants for Mastrangelo in early 2023, despite having probable cause to initiate criminal proceedings arising from his assault of four victims, provided Mastrangelo an opportunity to commit a further assault in May 2024. The fifteen-month delay in seeking Mastrangelo’s arrests requires a full and candid explanation by the Commanding Officer of the CSP.”

Members of the community have called for Cofrancesco’s resignation since the report was released, including Amy Lestinsky, the mother of the fifth victim. Lestinsky helped Cofrancesco campaign for first selectman back in 2021.

“It’s super disheartening, because here I was supporting someone who I thought had the moral integrity and the know-how, and it’s all come out in black and white,” Lestinsky said. “She has none of them, and to me is not fit to run the town. I wanted her to resign last year and now, more than ever, I think she really should step down.”

Amy Rushlow, chair of the Bethany Democratic Town Committee, wrote in a post on Facebook that Cofrancesco’s “ineptitude, malfeasance, and gross neglect have no place in Bethany, especially as its leader. We call on Paula Cofrancesco to resign immediately. Our children and our town deserve better.”

Sen. Ceci Maher, co-chair of the state legislature’s Committee on Children, which has advocated for the camp licensing bill, said the report offers a clear example of why such oversight is under consideration by lawmakers.

“Not all camps operate like this. I’m hopeful that this is the exception. But something horrible happened in Bethany, and across 169 municipalities, with dozens upon dozens of different parks and recreation departments operating at different levels, it could happen again. It’s clear to me that we can do better. I look forward to seeing us do better.”