BROOKFIELD -- The town's Board of Ethics unanimously voted to dismiss a complaint made against Republican Selectwoman Tara Carr Friday -- on a technicality.
Within seven minutes of the ethics hearing beginning on the complaint, Tom Lee, Carr's attorney, stood up from his seat at the front of the room and asked for the case to be dismissed.
He referred to a Code of Ethics state statute, which says the ethics board needs to inform the complainant no more than three business days after the end of its investigation, and provide them with a summary and reasons for making that finding.
He said Carr received the letter about the complaint Sept. 6, which was more than three business days after Aug. 30, the date the investigation ended.
The board also didn't provide a summary of its findings in the investigation, nor reasons for those findings, Lee said.
"You have failed to follow the prerequisite actions required by state statute and have harmed the respondent in her ability to counter the claim against her. As a result of the aforesaid, you must dismiss this complaint and take no further action on it," Lee said, addressing the board.
The complaint, made July 31 by former Board of Education Chairman Ray DiStephan, a Democrat, over a social media post referencing ballot stuffing on Selectwoman Tara Carr's public Facebook page.
The post, which is still on Carr's Facebook page, which referred to DiStephan's wife, Brookfield town clerk, Andrea DiStephan, a Democrat, said "('DiStuffin ballots' with his wife -- our town clerk! ')."
The post was made the day of the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and referred to the shooting in Butler, Pa.
In the complaint, DiStephan said he "was outraged and... astonished" that Carr mocked his name "with a completely false and libelous claim" that he and his wife "were involved in some kind of voter fraud."
After a 45 minute executive session, Board of Ethics Chairperson Alice Carolan said the complaint is dismissed "out of a technicality and not in any way because of the matters related to the complaint."
She added, however, that the matter hasn't ended.
"It is being dismissed on a technicality but out of respect for the issues raised, we will schedule a Board of Ethics meeting within six months," according to the board's ethics laws, she said.
Board member Christine Hand said the board could also decide to initiate its own complaint with its own board on the matter.
Carolan said the technicality like the one that occurred has never happened to the board before.
Only a handful of members of the public attended the meeting, including Carr, her husband and her mother. Carr did not speak during the hearing.
"Today, the Board of Ethics did the right thing by dismissing this baseless, frivolous case," Carr said in a statement after the hearing. "It would not surprise me though if the complainant re-files his complaint, as he has a history of using the board of ethics as a tool to attack those with whom he disagrees politically. He has yet to provide any solid evidence of wrongdoing. He has acted on suspicion yet he continues to tie up town resources in his crusade to defame those who are working hard for the citizens of Brookfield."
After the hearing, Ray DiStephan said in an email he plans to submit his complaint again immediately.
"I expected something like this. In my mind, this is nothing other (than the) delay of the inevitable. But I suspect there will be more attempts like this to further deflect from the fact that Tara Carr told lies about me and my wife and continues to shun her responsibility for doing so," said DiStephan, who brought an ethics complaint in 2014 against former Brookfield First Selectman Bill Tinsley.
Andrea DiStephan, who wasn't involved in the ethics complaint, agreed the dismissal "is only a delay."
She added, "I'm confident this will come back to the Board of Ethics. I only wish Ms. Carr had respect for election officials. As a leader who was elected herself, she should be invested in learning about the process and supporting election officials, rather than prolonging her dissemination of dangerous misinformation."
In response to DiStephan's initial complaint, Carr wrote a letter to the Board of Ethics on Aug. 26 that said she did not make the accusations about ballot stuffing, saying they were posted by others who have access to her public Facebook account.
Carr's post, which included two photographs of two different people holding a flag that says "Trump 2024," says, "Fairfield/Litchfield county is undoubtedly TRUMP country!!! It makes my heart so sad that some are literally laughing at this," referring to the first assassination attempt against Trump.
The post says all violence should be condemned and asked whether any registered Democrats in Brookfield agreed with her.
Andrea DiStephan has said there has been no ballot stuffing.
In his complaint, Ray DiStephan said Carr is in violation of the Town Charter, Article X, Ethics C10-1, Ethical standards, which states: "All officials and employees of the town shall carry out their duties with the highest ethical standards regardless of personal considerations."
The charter also states town officials' conduct should be for the public good and should avoid conflict between public and private interests and responsibilities.
This is not the first time that Carr's social media postings have drawn scrutiny. In 2023, when Carr was first selectwoman, she faced backlash from her tweets mentioning gunfire and President Joe Biden. Carr said she was calling on the president to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon.