Mayor, Officer, the Accused: Drug War Divides Brothers

This is a story of three brothers. The oldest is mayor of New Haven. The youngest rose to the rank of a police detective. The middle one descended into the world of drug addiction and was charged this month with being a pusher.

On Feb. 6, the 37th day of Mayor John Daniels’ first term of office in this southern Connecticut city of 127,000 and 10 days before Detective Melvin Daniels was to put in for retirement, the lives of the three brothers were changed forever.

Robert Daniels, 48, surrendered to Melvin to answer cocaine possession and trafficking charges, and the mayor was put on the spot to explain how brothers could be so different.

Few suggest that John Daniels, 53, New Haven’s first black mayor, will lose his position as a role model for this city’s black youth or see his relentless anti-drug message undermined.

As Melvin Daniels, the youngest of the brothers at age 45, put it: “You can’t be held responsible for an almost 50-year-old man.”

WELI radio host Steve Kalb said that when he wondered out loud whether the mayor should have kept closer tabs on his brother, “I got jumped on.” Mostly, callers expressed sorrow over the turn of events.

A former city alderman, state senator and businessman, the soft-spoken, nattily dressed John Daniels established an unblemished record of public service as he kept his sights on the mayor’s office for more than 20 years.

But while John’s fortunes were rising, Robert’s were falling.

The mayor said Robert’s problems began in the late 1970s, when he got laid off from his blue-collar job and got mixed up with the wrong crowd. Family members’ efforts to help met with little success. One stay in a residential treatment program had no lasting effect.

When Robert Daniels was arraigned this month, he listed no assets, and was granted a court-appointed attorney.

“Some people just take a lot longer than others to hit bottom,” said Melvin.

Robert, who was using the alias of Dan Daniels, allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover officer on two occasions. A warrant was issued for his arrest following a raid on his apartment that netted $7,500 worth of cocaine. When Robert gave himself up to his brother four days after the raid, it was his first arrest.

According to a court source, he entered a 28-day drug treatment program at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown three days after his arrest. No trial date has been set.

The brothers have gotten together only occasionally for holidays and family birthdays, although Robert did stop by for John’s victory party Nov. 7.

Melvin, who has spent the last five years on the front lines of New Haven’s escalating drug war, is trying to forget the day he faced off against his brother in that battle.

“I don’t want to keep on opening it up,” said the police detective, whose nickname is “Rock.” “I want to let that thing die.

“Let me put it simply for you,” he said. “It’s part of the territory of being a police officer. Even though it hurts sometimes, you do what you got to do.”

John Daniels Jr. is the oldest of the three sons and two daughters of John and Ludelia Daniels, who were on hand to watch him sworn in as mayor. The family moved from Georgia to New Haven when John Jr. was a boy.

A star football player in high school, John attended Villanova University on a full athletic scholarship. His first job was as a teacher, and he later worked for Qunnipiac College, Yale University and a city development agency.

Melvin entered the Navy after high school and worked as a mechanic before becoming a housing authority police officer in 1969. “He is sort of a carbon copy of John,” said Albert Rogers, the mayor’s executive assistant and friend since grammar school. “He just went out and did his job.”

Robert, who has two daughters but is separated from his wife, was always “a very lovable and happy-go-lucky guy,” said Melvin.

In his 1960 high school yearbook, Robert listed dancing as his favorite hobby and entry into the Air Force as his ambition. Melvin said his brother did go on to join the Air Force, but eventually received a medical discharge because of asthma.

In the black community, sympathy was expressed for Robert’s family.

“I have compassion and support for his family because I know what it feels like,” said Lisa Sullivan, a Yale graduate student and political activist who advises the NAACP Youth Council. “I have cousins and uncles in my family who sell drugs and are addicted to drugs. The black community is in crisis.”

The mayor told a news conference on Feb. 7 that “if the fact that the mayor’s brother can fall prey to the lure of drugs will help the rest of the community realize that it can happen in any family, to any one, then something good has come of Robert’s tragedy.”