Norwich school board member charged with forgery
Norwich — Board of Education member James F. Maloney faces a forgery charge after he allegedly falsified an insurance document submitted to the city for use of a city-owned basketball court for a men's basketball tournament, police said.
Maloney, 36, of 155 Boswell Ave. was charged at 3:10 p.m. Monday with second-degree forgery as a result of an investigation into his falsification of insurance documents, police said. He was released on a $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear June 20 in Norwich Superior Court.
According to the arrest affidavit, Maloney submitted a facility request to the city on April 26 to use the Jenkins Basketball Court that included a certificate of liability insurance that the Recreation Department said “appeared to be manipulated and falsified,” and forwarded the information to Human Services Director Lee-Ann Gomes, who oversees the Recreation Department.
Maloney was resubmitting an earlier facility request to use the Jenkins Basketball Court for two dates, the first on May 30-31, and the second on Aug. 7-9 for a Night Flight basketball tournament. The city had said he needed to provide information on the charge per person and the certificate of liability insurance for the second event, as the one he originally submitted only covered the first.
When Gomes contacted the insurer, K&K Insurance Group Inc., on April 29 to verify the insurance certificate, a representative told her that the policy was canceled a week earlier due to nonpayment, the affidavit stated. Gomes contacted Norwich police on May 2 regarding the possible forgery of the insurance document.
During a May 20 interview with police, after first telling police he inadvertently sent the wrong form to the city, Maloney admitted he sent the forged insurance certificate to the city so the event could go on. He said he was not able to afford the coverage and hoped the city wouldn't notice or wouldn't notice until after the event.
Maloney attended Tuesday's Board of Education budget committee meeting and regular board meeting. During a brief break between the two meetings, he declined to comment on the arrest.
Maloney is in his first two-year term on the city school board.
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