The Nest of the Leech: Jimmy Bonanno's House at 24 Ronald Avenue

New Rochelle Board of Education: Criminal Enterprise Masquerading as an Educational Institution – Part XIX

Written By: Robert Cox

We’re baaack.

Since the news broke that Mauro Zonzini had plead guilty to corruption charges and signed a cooperation agreement and that John Gallagher had been arrested and indicted on corruption charges, the floodgates have started to open.

Keep ‘em coming!!! We will post them as we are able to verify them.

Here is a tip we received late last week:

“Mauro Zonzini did Bonannos (sic) driveway with two school employees and Jimmy and two of Zonzinis (sic) workers on school time.”

The driveway in question is located at 24 Ronalds Avenue in New Rochelle, NY. This is property once owned by the family of Jimmy’s wife and then by Jimmy and his wife and ultimately just Jimmy. If you have to ask how Jimmy gets divorced and ends up with his wife’s family home not her then you have not been paying attention.

Since getting this tip, I have confirmed with multiple sources that the masonry work at Jimmy Bonanno’s house was done by Mauro Zonzini and that three district employees, including Jimmy, worked on the driveway on district time. This sounds similar to Jimmy using district employees to work on his girlfriend’s house in Orange County. In that case, the district employees included Lenny Pace, Willie Clark.

I have also been told by two sources that materials purchased from Landscape Depot as part of an order meant for masonry work at Trinity School ended up at Jimmy’s house. Material at Jimmy’s house also appears to have come from the new wing at New Rochelle High School. Readers can be the judge.

Look at the stone installed around the trees on Church Street. The pavers put in around the trees are poorly done (best guess, by the district’s own inept “mason” Mike Matisse). Not only are they laid out incorrectly but rather than put in pavers all along the sidewalk, the asphalt has been cut and pavers only placed in the area around the tree so that the effect is stone, asphalt, stone, asphalt. Best guess here is that the pavers that were supposed to go where the asphalt is now ended up in Jimmy’s driveway instead.

The stone installed near Pelham Road is done a little better, suggesting that either someone else did it or Matisse did it after one of his nice long naps at his hideaway bungalow in the New Rochelle High School elevator room or that it was outsourced to Zonzini (he may be a crook but he did know how to lay stone, just ask the Police Commish!). The wall was recently knocked down and has yet to be repaired. If you want some cheap entertainment wait and see if they assign this work order to Matisse. I’ve watched him work before. His ability to work at minimum speed and effort with maximum incompetence is a sight to behold. These pavers match the pavers in the main driveway area at Jimmy’s house.

Next, check out the stone around the front of the building running from the infamous $5,000 flag pole, all along the front of the school. Belgian Block everywhere, a nice match for the Belgian Block edging Jimmy’s driveway and around the path leading to the back of the house. And laid flat at the entrance to Jimmy’s driveway.

Lastly, look at the pillars that flank the entrance to the driveway and the wall that runs along the south edge of the driveway. Those bricks and tops bear a striking resemblance to the ones used for the retaining walls in front of the new wing at the high school and over by the tennis courts.

Looks like this tip has panned out. I am sure the feds will be interested and Mauro will be taking a big risk if he does not cop to this fraud because if he does not and any of the many folks who know about this do (and I have contact information for two of them, as of now, and will likely have more) then Mauro will be in violation of his cooperation agreement and that opens him up to perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

I can’t decided what I prefer — tacking on 5 or 10 years to Mauro’s sentence or seeing Mauro rat out Jimmy. Tough one there. Hey, how about both!

Now, readers will recall that the school district put out an absurd public statement claiming that they wanted to “root out” corruption. Talk of the Sound readers know that that is not true for the rather obvious reason that THEY are the corruption and they certainly don’t want to be rooting out themselves!  Right Mr. Lacher? Mr. Kehl? Tick tock! Time is running out. I will have more on the district’s laughably false claims in their official statement but for now let me just say that over the weekend I did offer Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne the chance to chase down this little bit of corruption himself and ACTUALLY cooperate with the Justice Department not just hand over to them the documents they already had from me (didn’t anyone at the Board of Education wondering WHY they were asking for so many specific records in that Grand Jury Subpoena). Sheesh!

Dr. Osborne sat next to me at lunch Thursday at the always delicious Mexican Corner restaurant but must have forgotten to thank me for my many years rooting out corruption in his school district. Maybe he has a surprise in store like a Certificate of Appreciation to be presented to me at the next board meeting. I will be there in the event I need to stand up and accept the award.

I sent Osborne a letter over the weekend, giving him until noon today to respond which predictably he did not do.

Here is the letter:

Dear Supt. Dr. Osborne,

If it is not obvious, let me be clear that I have absolutely no respect for you or any members of the board. You all are a disgrace. It is my view that some of the current leadership including Mr. Kehl and Mr. Lacher, among others, should have been criminal charged and disbarred long ago. It is my hope to help put all such corrupt persons in federal prison.

I remain amazed you would issue a statement claiming that you and/or the district or board of whoever the press statement is meant to represent are committed to “rooting out” corruption. I find it disgusting that you would present yourself or the District to the public in that way when it is an absolute, utter and demonstrable falsehood. The fact is the district has, for years, obstructed justice not sought to root out corruption. In fact, it has often been complicit in the corruption or an agent in directing the corruption.

However, since you made that public statement making a claim of wanting to root out corruption let me at least ask — what are you prepared to do to back it up?

As I expect you know, I have provided information on ongoing corruption to Assistant Supt. for Business Jeff White over the past year and the people involved continue to be employed by the District. In some cases, the corruption continues unabated. I have photos, videos and records to this effect.

I have information on my desk right now about instances of corruption involving Trinity, NRHS and IEYMS including photos, witnesses and other hard evidence. I was in the field yesterday afternoon taking photos and interviewing witnesses.

I will tell you what I want — I want you to direct that from this point forward my Freedom of Information requests are given top priority; that you issue a written order that my FOIL requests are to be complied with IMMEDIATELY.

There is a particular case I am working on right now involving one of the most corrupt persons working in the district who has NEVER been held to account despite stealing large sums of money and playing a key role in the ongoing federal corruption investigation. I fully expect this person IS going to jail — no thanks to you or your colleagues.

I want specific records from a specific school and I want them by end of day Tuesday, They should not be hard to find.

Consider this email, me calling your bluff. Be advised that unlike my past communications with Jeff White this is an ON THE RECORD communication as is your response or lack thereof.

So, are you prepared to order the immediate production of the records I seek pertaining to a particular school? If so, I will work with Jeff White to give him photographs, new tips, eyewitnesses and other records and allow the district to ACTUALLY cooperate with the DOJ and allow the District to be the ones to contact the DOJ with this information before I run my story. If you do this, I will report that you ARE cooperating with the DOJ in this instance.

I have a meeting with the DOJ next week regarding these and other matters — and the issue of what I believe is one or more of your employees trying to kill or injure me and my family which my lawyer will ask be turned over to the FBI.

Past being prologue, I do not expect a reply to this offer. Given that I expect to report that you chose not to reply to this offer in the article I am preparing on this particular corruption involving a particular school..

If I have not heard back from you by noon Tuesday, I will proceed without you.

Noon.

Thank you for consideration.

Robert Cox

Managing Editor

New Rochelle’s Talk of the Sound

As it is past noon and there has been no reply or production of the records, I have proceeded to report on this story. I have more coming. In the meantime, the failure to respond put the lie to the notion that the District wants to root out corruption. They do not, as should be obvious to any Talk of the Sound reader over the past 9 years.

I have now gone ahead and submitted a Freedom of Information request:

Public Records Request – Masonry & Related Supplies

This is a public records request.

I would like to obtain all records pertaining to (a) masonry work done at Trinity School from January 1, 2000 until present to include all vouchered invoices (with POs and payments and related) and all work orders; (b) specific “wall” masonry work done at NRHS along the lake by which I mean the retaining wall across the road from the new wing and the retaining wall for the tennis courts (pictured in attached photos).

Where possible I would like records in electronic format. If possible, I would like the electronic documents converted into standard Microsoft Office format (Word, Excel, etc.). I would like all communications including the delivery of documents to take place via email as much as is possible based on the nature of the available records.. I would like the Records Access Officer to certify that the records are genuine. If the documents only exist in paper form I am willing to pay. If the cost of converting the documents to a standard electronic format or making photos copies exceeds $20.00 I would like prior notification of the estimated cost to comply with this records request.

Robert Cox

Managing Editor

New Rochelle’s Talk of the Sound

http://www.talkofthesound.com

So now we wait.

NEXT: New Rochelle Board of Education: Criminal Enterprise Masquerading as an Educational Institution – Part XX

New Rochelle Board of Education: Criminal Enterprise Masquerading as an Educational Institution – Table of Contents