Norwich council candidate Grillo faces criminal, civil complaints over business dealings

NORWICH — A life-long city resident and local business owner running for City Council is currently facing charges in a New London court for allegedly issuing bad checks to former employees — the criminal allegations adding to a string of civil lawsuits filed against him claiming the candidate’s business owes the plaintiffs money.

Michael D. Grillo, 27, a Republican candidate on the City Council ballot for the upcoming Nov. 2 election, operates a facility maintenance company based in Norwich and denied any wrongdoing in the criminal case, telling The Bulletin last week he expected prosecutors to drop the charges at his next scheduled court appearance on Nov. 15.

“There is not a single employee that works here or has worked here to my knowledge that has ever walked away not getting paid,” Grillo said.

Criminal allegations

Court filings obtained this week show New London police arrested Grillo in October of last year after two of his employees cashed bad paychecks at a check-cashing business in New London.

According to an affidavit filed by a detective with the New London Police Department, the owner of United Check Cashing told police he contacted Grillo about the missing funds who responded by saying the Core Plus Federal Credit Union, the entity from which the checks were drawn, told him, “that payment was made for the checks in question so [he] felt that he was not liable." The owner stated he continued to call Grillo who reportedly said, “he would call him back to discuss the matter but never did.”

Election 2021:6 things to know about who is running for elected office in Norwich

When the detective emailed Grillo copies of the “bank rejection forms” that were sent to the check-cashing business owner, Grillo “stated that he was meeting with the financial officer from the bank to discuss the matter,” according to the court filings. Grillo later told police that he spoke with the credit union “and was told that the issue was likely a problem with the routing numbers.”

According to his affidavit, the detective checked with the security officer at Core Plus Credit Union who informed him “he did not see anything that would lead him to believe that were was an issue with the accounting routing numbers. He further said that it appears the checks in question were drawn on an account that did not have the funds needed available.”

The investigation took a turn in January 2020 when an employee who initially cashed one of the faulty checks told the detective that “she could not continue to work for Michael Grillo at the M&M Group after further problem[s] with being paid and issues with [Grillo] moving money around or denying her access to the bank accounts to complete her work,” according to the affidavit.

The following month, the court filings show the detective requested an arrest warrant for Grillo based on the belief that he “fully intends to defraud United Check Cashing,” because the Norwich business owner “issued the checks with the knowledge that the funds were not available in his account and continued failure to correct the problems.”

Civil complaints

The criminal charges add to a series of civil lawsuits naming Grillo as a defendant which date back to 2018 when the Connecticut-based commercial debt buyer TBF Financial, Inc. accused Grillo and his uncle, Jeffery Emmerich of violating an agreement to finance equipment, according to a complaint filed in the case.

In November 2020, a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered Grillo and Emmerich to pay $52,510.88 to cover the claim and additional attorneys’ fees.

In 2019, lawyers representing Georgia-based Sunbelt Rentals, Inc. sued Grillo, alleging his company violated an equipment rental agreement and that he owed an outstanding account balance of $24,456.20.

Grillo told The Bulletin the case remains open because there is an ongoing dispute over how much money is owed to the rental company; but he may need to find new representation after the attorney representing him in the case, Lawrence H. Adler, submitted a motion to withdraw himself from the case on Oct. 15, court records show.

Norwich salary figures:Norwich Public Schools superintendent is the highest paid city employee. Who is second?

In a letter attached to Adler’s motion as an exhibit in the case docket, the attorney explained to Grillo why he would no longer represent him.

“Unfortunately you have not paid for the legal services provided, which you authorized and approved,” Adler wrote. “In addition, you have failed to show up for scheduled meetings and you do not return phone calls.”

“Based on the for[e]going, I have no choice but to file the attached Motion to Withdraw Appearance as counsel for you in this matter,” he added.

Attempts to reach Adler were unsuccessful.

The judge presiding over the civil case has yet to rule on the motion. The next scheduled court date has yet to be set.

Using the same language, Adler also moved to withdraw himself from representing his client in another civil suit filed by Yantic River Auto Supply on Oct.19, 2020 alleging Grillo owes the Norwich-based business $6,529.30.

The next scheduled date in the civil suit is scheduled for Nov. 15, 2021.

In the most recent civil suit filed involving Grillo and his company, Colchester residents Reynold and Lorraine Marvin allege he and a business partner, Justin Bingham, “borrowed $15,000” in a loan agreement signed in December 2019, according to a complaint filed in the case.

The complaint goes on to allege Grillo and Bingham breached their contract and “have failed, neglected and/or refused to return the $15,000 maximum principal loan.”

In a phone conversation Wednesday, a reporter asked Grillo if he was aware of the most recent suit filed against him.

“That is a negative -- you are the first person to tell me,” he said.

A ‘shady’ business?

On top of the legal matters, The Bulletin interviewed several former employees and local business owners in recent weeks who similarly claimed Grillo’s business failed to pay them for wages earned or services rendered, with some noting they reported their grievances to the Norwich Police Department.

Based on the conversations, a reporter submitted a public records request seeking copies of “reports and/or investigations” made against Michael Grillo this year.

In an emailed response returned Friday, the department’s clerical coordinator said the department could not return the requested documents because “these reports are open investigations which are not releasable.”

Fighting addiction:'Hey, it's not a police sting.' How a nonprofit fights addiction in and around Norwich.

But not everyone interviewed reported their interactions with Grillo to the police. The owner of the Bestway gas station in Franklin, Asif Choudhry, recalled he paid Grillo's company $4,000 to remove trees and stumps from his property in September 2019.

“He didn’t do it – he just cut the trees and hauled the trees,” Choudhry said this week. “…He said ‘oh you paid me, I’ll come back and finish it but he never came back so I hired somebody else to finish it.”

“This guy is shady,” he added.

Beyond the “shady” business dealings, the basic legal standing of Grillo’s facility maintenance company is also unclear.

Formed in 2015, the state’s corporate database shows the M&M Group, LLC was dissolved in January 2020.

Speaking to a reporter, Grillo attributed the dissolution to a mistake made by a former partner who “checked the wrong box” in attempting to remove his name from the company. Now, instead of M&M Group, the business operates under M&M Landcare, he explained.

But a search on the state’s publicly available corporate database returned no registered business with that name. A check with the Norwich City Clerk’s office did not reveal any trade name registered at the municipal level by Grillo in the last three years.

Grillo told The Bulletin he is “not doing business under my social security,” adding that, “right now we are doing business under M&M Lawncare.”

On Friday, Grillo confirmed he is the “owner and account executive” of M&M Landcare. To prove the entity is in good legal standing he sent a screenshot of a “Zoning Approval” issued by the city of Norwich in May of 2014 that lists the name and address of his uncle’s residence.

Pressed for information regarding the legitimacy of how his business operates, Grillo declined to answer.

“I am not going to allow for a publication to print legal entity and financial information about myself or people I do business with,” he said.

“We can choose to do business under whichever entity, or whatever tax structure that we want – that’s obviously my choice.”

“It’s not under my name, like I said, [and] we are not going to get into the legal structure and how we operate,” he added.

A worthy candidate?

Despite the criminal, civil, and extra-judicial allegations made against him in recent years, Grillo maintains he is a strong candidate for City Council.

“I mean, common sense, right I haven’t done this for 20 years, right, and the reason why I decided to run for City Council is because I got my personal property tax and I joined the Republican Town Committee and wanted to get involved and find out why it is that things don’t make any sense, right, depending on things when it comes to the fire service or what have you,” he said.

"Contrary to popular belief, regardless of the lawsuits, right, I still operate what I would like to think is a decent business with contracts that I am beyond fortunate to have,” he added.

Adding to his resume, Grillo asserted a leading role he recently played in helping to mediate an ongoing arbitration between members of the Norwich police and fire unions centering on a dispute over how sick, personal, and vacation time should be used in the case of officers and firefighters being held out of work on account of mandated COVID-19 quarantines.

More:Norwich police, firefighters seek cut of the city's COVID-relief funds. This is why.

Grillo noted a face-to-face meeting with the head of the Norwich Firefighters Union held in recent weeks; claiming: “That was a conversation which I was able to go back to my party with and they went from not talking to each other to talking to each other.”

Reached for comment on Friday, Norwich Firefighters Local 892 President Michael Podzaline acknowledged the meeting took place but threw water on Grillo’s assertion, telling The Bulletin the negotiations were in fact initiated by a state arbitrator.

“[Michael Grillo] did not assist in the COVID matter,” Podzaline said.