The Connecticut Department of Transportation has fired a longtime employee nearly five years after investigators discovered he used his position to obtain deep discounts on cars purchased from a towing company, according to a termination letter obtained last week.
In March, the Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica reported on the accusations against Dominick Stefanski and the DMV’s lack of action against him or the towing company. This article was part of a larger series about how Connecticut’s towing laws have favored towing companies over vehicle owners, and how the DMV’s lack of oversight has allowed the system to be abused. The DMV investigated Stefanski for more than a year in 2020, but did not fire him until early November, months after the news reports.
According to a 2020-2021 DMV investigation, an employee at D&L Auto Body & Towing in Berlin, Conn., made eye contact with Stefanski when he went to the DMV’s headquarters in nearby Wethersfield, and Stefanski allowed him to cut the slow-moving DMV line. In exchange for the favor, D&L employees would allow Stefanski to choose a vehicle the company had towed weeks or months earlier, the report said. Investigators say D&L undervalued the cars on DMV forms, allowing Stefanski to buy them cheaply and resell them for a profit.
DMV investigators found that between 2015 and 2019, D&L sold 15 vehicles to an investment company owned by Stefanski, who had worked for the DMV since 1999 and was a document examiner at DMV headquarters at the time. In one case, Stefanski bought a Cadillac for $1,000 and sold it for $17,500. The car was eventually sold by another company for $23,250.
In 2020, DMV investigators recommended criminal charges against Stefanski and issued a warrant for his arrest for allegedly taking thousands of dollars from him. However, the prosecutor’s office decided not to prosecute, citing “prosecutorial discretion” and “insufficient evidence to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” Prosecutors suggested the DMV could handle the matter internally.
However, the DMV did not discipline Stefanski or fine D&L for several years after the investigation. The agency declined to comment on the firings or answer specific questions about the investigation.
Stefanski was placed on paid leave in March, two business days after the article was published. His annual salary was just over $72,000. The termination letter, dated Nov. 6, said he was fired for misconduct “when he used his position for financial gain.”
Stefanski said he has appealed and a hearing is scheduled for next month. In an interview with reporters earlier this year, Stefanski insisted he had done nothing wrong.
Stefanski said by phone last week that after the news outlet published the story, he held a hearing and presented evidence, including a check he received as a loan for the purchase of the vehicle. He said the check proves he paid more for the car than the warrant indicated.
The state rejected Stefanski’s claims.
“The agency has not determined that the information presented provides a basis for mitigating the proposed termination sentence,” the termination letter states.
D&L officials declined to comment on the firings, but said in an earlier statement that a manager who worked for Stefanski was fired and that the company was working with the DMV to “ensure this situation never occurs again.”
“The company’s management at the time acted on its own and believed that selling a non-driving car was the right thing to do,” the statement said. Investigators said many of the cars were in good condition.
Stefanski said the union is supporting the appeal, but declined to provide details until after the case is over.
Logan Williams, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees No. 4, which represents DMV workers, said the union could not comment on the specifics of the case, but said workers’ rights “draw their strength from the integrity of due process.”
“All unions exist to protect this process and the rights of their members,” Williams said in a statement. “Whenever discipline is communicated in the workplace, our union has an obligation to ensure that the process is followed and that due process is available to our members.”
Stefanski said that nearly seven years after the incident and nearly five years after DMV investigators learned what was going on, no one at the DMV has given him a reason why he was fired.
“They didn’t explain it to me. In fact, they didn’t tell me anything,” Stefanski said.
