HARTFORD, Conn. — Road Rage Tom Foley just can’t seem to stop with the lies, distortions of  the truth and complete reinvention of history when it comes to his past criminal behavior and his more recent election law violations.

“Mr. Foley seems unable to accept responsibility for his own behavior; worse, there’s a pattern of him minimizing serious issues in an arrogant, cavalier, dismissive fashion,” said Connecticut Democratic Party Executive Director Jonathan Harris.” In fact, he seems to be living in a different world.  These are not the actions of a person who’s prepared to lead the State of Connecticut.”

Foley on his road rage attack, take 1: Foley called the 1981 arrest a “minor car accident.”

REALITY CHECK: Victims of the 1981 Foley road rage attack told law enforcement Foley rammed their vehicle five times — once while the vehicles were traveling at 50 miles per hour.

Foley on his road rage attack, take 2: Foley said that he accidentally ran his car “at a very low rate of speed into a line of cars” that were backed up in traffic.

REALITY CHECK: Again, victims of the 1981 Foley road rage attack told law enforcement Foley rammed their vehicle five times — once while the vehicles were traveling at 50 miles per hour.

Foley on 1981 Arrest Records : Foley said he had exhausted all efforts to release all records of his 1981 arrest, saying there “is nothing further for me to inquire about.”

REALITY CHECK:  Jon Lender of the Hartford Courant obtained the arrest report and the offense report.

Foley on SEEC violations: “We believed at the time and believe today that everything I did and Voters for Good Government did complies with Connecticut law.  There is nothing wrong, of course, with an organization or private citizen conducting a poll.”

REALITY CHECK: The SEEC concluded that Foley improperly commissioned a poll without announcing his candidacy.  Foley was fined $600 and agreed to pay the full cost of the poll, which was more than $15,000.

Background:

Foley Called The 1981 Collision A “Minor Car Accident.” In June 2010, Foley released a statement saying, “Jon Lender of the Hartford Courant published an article this morning about two motor vehicle related infractions I was involved in a number of years ago. One was in 1981 and the other in 1993. The one in 1981, when I was 29, involved a minor car accident in which the occupants of the other car filed a complaint resulting in my arrest. The case was later dismissed. The one in 1993 involved my former wife and we were both arrested. The charges were dropped in that case, too. I was candid with Jon Lender and he wrote a straight and fair article.” [CT Mirror, 6/25/10]

Accident Report Said Foley Hit The Other Car Five Times In Three Separate Locations Over A One-Mile Distance At 50 Miles Per Hour. According to the Hartford Courant, “The accident report said that Foley hit the other car — which had five people in it — three times on the left rear fender and twice on its left front fender. The incident unfolded over a mile or so, and one of the collisions happened when the cars were going about 50 mph, the offense report says. Foley hit the other car several more times after it had stopped in a parking lot, that report said. Howe, the other car’s driver, told a Courant reporter that he and his passengers had driven away from a party in Southampton that Foley also had attended, and that he believed that Foley had followed them in his vehicle. Howe declined to elaborate, and would not comment on what might have prompted the incident. He spoke only briefly when approached outside his home by a reporter who read to him from the police account of the incident.” [Hartford Courant, 10/15/13]

Offense Report Said Foley Struck The Other Car At An Intersection, On The Highway While Traveling 50 MPH, And In A Parking Lot. According to the Hartford Courant, “The second report, the offense report, was sealed after the charges were dismissed but obtained through a source. It contains additional details on the circumstances surrounding the incident. ‘Above named Michael R. Howe, and those listed as witnesses, are all victims of the charge of attempted assault,’ according to the report. ‘Defendant intentionally struck the victims while they were riding in a 1981 Mercury Sedan … Defendant was operating a 1973 Toyota Jeep … Defendant struck victims several times, once at [an intersection], once while west-bound on [Montauk] Highway while traveling approx. 50 MPH. and several more times at the parking lot of Suffolk Lighting on Main St.'” [Hartford Courant, 10/15/13]

Foley Said The 1981 Collision Occurred “At A Very Low Rate Of Speed Into A Line Of Cars.” According to the Hartford Courant, “Foley said Thursday night that he had been staying on Long Island at a summer home with friends in 1981, and had been at a nighttime party with a date. Upon leaving, he said, he accidentally ran his car “at a very low rate of speed into a line of cars” that were backed up in traffic. He said the people in the vehicle he hit filed a complaint with police, and the next day he was called to the police station and arrested. Foley said he spent the night in a cell and then was released. The complainants had been at the same party, he said, and ‘they were upset because they thought I had done it on purpose,’ which he said he had not. He said he did not remember having to go to court before the people who complained ‘dropped the charge.’ He said he never made any financial settlement to resolve the case and was never sued. No one was injured, he said, and any damage to the vehicles ‘was minor, whatever it was.'” [Hartford Courant, 6/25/10]

Foley Said He Had Exhausted All Efforts To Release All Records Of His 1981 Arrest, Saying There “Is Nothing Further For Me To Inquire About.” According to the CT Mirror, “But Foley said the two documents add little to the public narrative about his arrest at age 29, and he has no intention of repeating an effort he says he initiated three years ago, when The Courant disclosed the incident, relying on a July 2, 1981 account in the Southampton Press. ‘When this arose in 2010, I inquired through an attorney what records existed in Southampton and was told there was no record, either in the district attorney’s office or the Southampton police department related to the incident,’ Foley told The Mirror in an interview Tuesday. ‘I have no reasons to believe that’s not true. There is nothing further for me to inquire about.'” [CT Mirror, 10/16/13]

October 2013: Hartford Courant Obtained Police Documents Of Foley’s 1981 Arrest. According to the Hartford Courant, “Documents obtained by The Courant about a 1981 car crash involving Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tom Foley paint a dramatically different picture from the account that he gave during his failed 2010 governor’s campaign when he described the event as an accidental bump at low speed in traffic. The documents — which contain accounts from those who were in the other vehicle and a description of the physical condition of their car — say that Foley, then 29, drove behind a car full of people on a dark Long Island road in his Toyota Land Cruiser after a party and hit it five times in three separate locations.” [Hartford Courant, 10/15/13]

One Report Was A “Police Accident Report,” The Other Was An “Offense Report.” According to the Hartford Courant, “At the time, no police reports were available, but in recent months The Courant has obtained them. One, obtained through a public records request, is a ‘police accident report.’ The other, obtained through a source, is an ‘offense report’ that contains additional information and a narrative based on witness interviews.” [Hartford Courant, 10/15/13]

Foley Said He Believed “Everything I Did And Voters For Good Government Did Complies With Connecticut Law.” In October 2013, Foley said in a statement after a State Elections and Enforcement Commission decision, “We believed at the time and believe today that everything I did and Voters for Good Government did complies with Connecticut law.” [Tom Foley Exploratory Committee Press Release, via Ameriborn News, 10/16/13]

SEEC: Foley Was “Required To Register As A Candidate” When He Commissioned The Poll. In its October 2013 decision on Foley’s 2013 poll, the State Elections and Enforcement Commission concluded, “Where, as here, the Commission believes that Mr. Foley incurred a $15,504 expenditure and he received a contribution from VGG in the same amount, he was required to register as a candidate pursuant to General Statutes § 9-604 and designate a committee as his funding vehicle.” [State Elections And Enforcement Commission, Final Decision 2013-042, 10/16/13]

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