Scandal Follows Scandal in Connecticut

The day after Connecticut’s governor resigned amid scandal, the chief of staff to the state’s highest-ranking police official was arrested Friday on larceny and conspiracy charges.

Maj. Gregory Senick, chief of staff to Public Safety Commissioner Arthur Spada, was charged with defrauding the state of more than $10,000 for upkeep of his state-owned home, for which he was charged bargain rent.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who took office Thursday, ordered Spada to take Senick’s gun, badge and car and put him on unpaid leave. Before Rell’s order, state police had planned to assign Senick to administrative duties, a paid assignment.

“Certainly it is a sad day for Mr. Senick and a disappointment to me personally,” Rell said.

Rell had pledged to hold her administration to the highest ethical standards.

Her predecessor, John G. Rowland, resigned as he faced a federal investigation and possible impeachment over gifts he received from associates and state contractors.

The chief state’s attorney’s office charged Senick with two counts of larceny and one count of conspiracy to commit larceny.

Senick, 47, has lived in the state-owned 2,000-square-foot house in Meriden since 1999 -- originally paying just $1 a year.

After the $1-a-year rent deal drew scrutiny, officials increased the rent to $150 a month. In exchange for the low rent, Senick was to conduct security checks of the property and file quarterly reports with the Department of Public Works.

But the arrangement was looked at again by state prosecutors, who concluded Senick billed the state for $10,000 worth of trash removal, painting and other routine maintenance to the home even though he was supposed to pay for it himself.

Investigators charged Hartford property manager Joseph Murphy with the same violations, saying he knowingly billed the state rather than Senick.

“I’m disappointed,” Spada said. “We feel very strongly at headquarters that he will be vindicated.”

Sgt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman, said Senick would have no comment.