Al Pirro, Counsel for New Rochelle courthouse site owner, says worker was cleaning a drain, not a monitoring well; directs Stagg, Fonte, and Simone to reserve all comments.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY (July 1, 2026) — The attorney representing the owner of the Family Court Building site in New Rochelle is disputing the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s account of a November 4, 2025 chemical incident that seriously injured a worker, saying the worker was instructed to clean a drain — not a monitoring well — and calling the incident “a most unfortunate accident.”
In a letter sent to Talk of the Sound on June 30, 2026, Albert J. Pirro Jr., a partner at Abrams Fensterman LLP in White Plains and counsel for MJ Garden III LLC, the owner of 26 Garden Street, said worker Jose Candelario “has worked at this site for years and, as in the past, was instructed to clean a drain NOT a monitoring well.”
“The material used by Mr. Candelario was intended to clear the drain from being clogged and emanating odors,” Pirro wrote. “This problem odor has been reported by the Probation Department on several prior occasions. On each occasion, Mr. Candelario has successfully addressed the issue.”
Pirro’s account directly contradicts DEC’s, which identified the well involved as MW-4 — a designated groundwater monitoring well — and said the chemical introduction violated the site’s approved Site Management Plan because no Corrective Measures Work Plan was submitted in advance.
Talk of the Sound has asked the American Chemical Society to identify an expert who can speak to whether sodium persulfate and sodium hydroxide are consistent with routine drain cleaning, or whether their use is primarily associated with environmental remediation applications. A peer-reviewed study published in Environmental Research in 2023 describes the combination of sodium persulfate activated by sodium hydroxide as an in-situ chemical oxidation technology specifically designed to destroy chlorinated organic compounds in contaminated groundwater — the same class of contaminants found at the Garden Street site. A response from the ACS is pending.
DEC revoked the site’s Brownfield Cleanup Program Certificate of Completion as a result of the incident and referred the matter to its Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigators, the agency confirmed to Talk of the Sound last week.
Pirro said the COC revocation is being contested.
“The NYSDEC’s purported termination of the Certificate of Completion is already the subject of correspondence and conferences with a view to ensuring the NYSDEC is fully familiar with the facts,” he wrote.
DEC confirmed to Talk of the Sound that the Certificate of Completion has been revoked.
Pirro also confirmed that a personal injury action has been filed by Candelario. A review of state and federal court records by Talk of the Sound found no civil lawsuit on file as of July 1, 2026, under the names of Candelario, MJ Garden III LLC, or related entities.
Pirro said he has advised Mark Stagg, Mark Fonte, and Joseph Simone — principals connected to the site’s ownership and development — to reserve all comments “for the proper tribunal if, and when, this matter proceeds to a hearing.”
“No further comment will be forthcoming,” Pirro wrote.
Who Is Albert Pirro?
Albert J. Pirro Jr. is a prominent Westchester County attorney and longtime Republican political figure. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud charges and was sentenced to 29 months in prison. He is the former husband of Jeanine Pirro, the former Westchester County District Attorney and Fox News host who currently serves as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Albert Pirro is currently representing Jeanine Pirro as counsel in a lawsuit she filed against the City of Rye, which Talk of the Sound and Words in Edgewise have previously reported on.
DEC’s Account
According to DEC, the City of New Rochelle notified the agency via its Spill Hotline on November 4, 2025, reporting that a person hired by a Brownfield Cleanup Program applicant had poured sodium persulfate and sodium hydroxide into a monitoring well at the site, resulting in serious injury. DEC’s Environmental Conservation Police Officers responded to the scene and the agency’s Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigators took over the investigation immediately afterward, a DEC spokesperson said.
The site, formerly known as the Cottage-Garden Auto Repair site, is a former toxic brownfield that underwent a state-supervised cleanup beginning in 2019. The cleanup was declared conditionally complete in December 2020, subject to achieving groundwater contamination standards within five years — a deadline that fell at the end of December 2025. The November 4 incident occurred approximately seven weeks before that deadline.
Talk of the Sound Is Still Asking
Talk of the Sound has pending public records requests with the City of New Rochelle for police and fire department reports and any claim or legal action filed in connection with this matter. This publication has reached out to the following for comment, none of whom have responded as of this writing:
– Westchester County District Attorney’s office
– New York State Attorney General’s office
– U.S. Department of Labor / OSHA
– New York State Office of Court Administration
– Westchester County Executive’s office
– City of New Rochelle
– Fuad Dahan of SESI Consulting Engineers, engineer of record for the site’s remediation program
This story will be updated as new information becomes available.
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This article was prepared with the assistance of AI tools under the direction and editing of Robert Cox.
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