Investigators know, at least, how Joshua DeJesus died: “thermal injury.” His body was burnt beyond recognition.
But more than two years after a fire destroyed the house at 214 Main St. in Watertown, investigators couldn’t answer some key questions — including whether DeJesus had been trapped inside the illegal third-floor apartment that he rented from the father of a state legislator known for his support of landlord rights.
DeJesus’ body was found amid the rubble of the third-floor porch and stairway that collapsed as the fire raged in the early morning hours Jan. 16, 2022. An autopsy found soot in his lungs, meaning he had been alive and breathing when the fire started.
But investigators still don’t know how the fire started or where DeJesus was at the time.
Even as firefighters were dousing the embers, Watertown Fire Marshal Kim Calabrese was raising questions about whether the homeowner had violated building and fire codes. The owner of the home, Guiseppe Polletta, was among the crowd that had gathered in the freezing early-morning hours to watch firefighters battle the blaze.
The State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit took over the investigation shortly after the fatal fire. Calabrese told detectives that the third-floor unit might not have been a legal apartment.
The Polletta name is well known in Watertown. Not only does Guiseppe Polletta own about 30 rental properties, but his son, Rep. Joe Polletta, R-Watertown, was the ranking member of the Housing Committee at the time of the fire.
Investigators considered charging the elder Polletta with manslaughter in connection with various building code violations on the property. But amid lingering questions about the origin of the fire and how DeJesus died, the state’s attorney closed the investigation last fall without charging anyone.
“The case was closed last year after a thorough investigation by the CSP and after several members of my office meet with them,” said Maureen Platt, the Waterbury state’s attorney, in an emailed statement. “Specifically we could not prove causation for any manslaughter charge beyond a reasonable doubt. The statute of limitations had run on any housing violation.”
A fire on Jan. 15, 2022, at 214 Main St. in Watertown led to the death of a man who lived in a third-floor apartment. Credit: Courtesy / Watertown Fire Marshal
The Connecticut Mirror reviewed documents including a nearly 500-page state police investigation into the fatal fire, an Office of the State Fire Marshal report, an Office of State Building Inspector report, local building permit records and probate records and a search warrant that accused the elder Polletta of filing a false statement.
The investigations were wide-ranging. Officials interviewed a number of recent and former occupants and examined building permits from many years ago. But in the end, state officials could conclude only that the third-floor apartment was in violation of two state building codes.
The family did sue Guiseppe Polletta on behalf of DeJesus’s 7-year-old son, but it was settled for $1 million in 2022 — the amount of Guiseppe Polletta’s homeowners insurance. The probate case remains open because the family is still considering suing the town.
Despite that probate payout, Polletta’s attorney, Ryan McGuigan, said that the “evidence clearly shows that DeJesus was not in the house when the fire started and was not trapped.”
McGuigan pointed to the autopsy that showed DeJesus had no broken or fractured bones — unlikely, McGuigan said, if he had jumped from the third floor.
“The fire clearly started outside of the house and spread quickly because there were flammable materials all over the place,” McGuigan said. “He must have fallen asleep in his car or truck in the driveway and tried to get out when he saw the fire and died.”
Robert DeJesus, Joshua’s father, was counseled by his attorney, Robert Ward of Torrington, not to speak to the CT Mirror. Ward declined to comment on the investigation or whether the family is still considering suing town officials.
But the elder DeJesus’ actions the morning after the fire leave little doubt about whom he initially blamed.
As dawn broke, Robert DeJesus came to the fire scene and was talking with Watertown Police Det. Mark Conway when he saw Guiseppe Polletta in his truck. DeJesus immediately walked towards the truck to confront him, with Conway following, according to Conway’s incident report.
“Robert informed this officer he was looking for the old man,” Conway wrote in his police report. Conway stopped Robert DeJesus before he reached Guiseppe Polletta’s truck and escorted him away.
“Robert told this officer on multiple occasions that the third floor apartment was a death trap,” Conway wrote in his report.
Bad actors
During the last legislative session, House Republicans brought out Joe Polletta, the state representative, to speak to reporters about a bill that would have prohibited evictions when leases end for most tenants in Connecticut. His experience as a landlord qualified him to speak on the topic, a spokesman said.
A long-time member of the legislature’s Housing Committee, Joe Polletta has been one of the leading voices criticizing tenants’ rights bills before his committee, saying they pit landlords and tenants against each other and violate property owners’ rights.
“A lot of times, the landlords that the advocates are talking about are these large out-of-state landlords that own these large buildings in Harford, Bridgeport and New Haven,” Joe Polletta said. “Many of the landlords that I know in my district, me being one of them, are stand-up individuals who have invested in some properties.”
Joe Polletta went on to complain that many housing bills are unfair to smaller landlords.
“The small mom-and-pop landlord, the folks that own maybe two or three multifamily homes, get grouped in with these out-of-state landlords,” Polletta said. “We are all for holding bad actors accountable, but what we are not for is creating this web of ‘every landlord is just bad.’”
Joe Polletta is among the Republican lawmakers who have argued that there are just a few “bad apple” landlords and said they’re all for holding those landlords to account — as long as those policies don’t hurt “mom and pop” landlords. He also said that certain tenant protection measures could mean landlords have to be choosier about whom they rent to.
“I think that what the bill does is actually adversely impact the people that it’s trying to help, because it’s going to make landlords think twice about who to rent to, and I think it’s actually going to cause some landlords to raise rents,” Joe Polletta said.
Records indicate that Giuseppe Polletta is the sole owner of 214 Main St., where the fatal fire occurred, through a limited liability corporation. When asked about the fire, his father’s possible involvement and whether he considered him a good landlord, Joe Polletta asked for written questions.
He eventually issued a written statement, saying only:
“The tragic passing of Josh DeJesus was deeply saddening and caused pain among his family, friends, and my father,” Joe Polletta wrote. “My heart goes out to Josh’s loved ones, and I offer both my sincerest condolences for their loss and ongoing prayers from my family.”
Joe Polletta said he shares ownership of a handful of properties with his father, but “this is not one of them. He owned this property himself, independently.”
“I’m proud to be a member of the Housing Committee, where I believe my experience in property management provides valuable perspectives on the complex issues we face, not unlike other legislators whose committee work intersects with their professional lives,” Joe Polletta said. “I have always strived to find the right balance between the interests of tenants, housing advocates and housing providers to ensure economic security and dignity for all. This goal will remain my focus when the committee resumes its work.”
Stairs on fire
Matthew and Alysan Pages were in their second-floor bedroom shortly after 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 15, 2022, when they heard what sounded like a crackling noise.
“I looked out the side bedroom window and saw a glow through the window towards the left center of the property. I went to the back doorway in the kitchen, opened the kitchen door and saw flames in the area of the staircase. The flames appeared to be 4-5 feet tall,” Matthew Pages told police.
Pages told police that the outdoor staircase, which appeared to be on fire, was the family’s only way down. A door on an inside staircase was bolted shut and had been for the two years they lived there.
“There was no ladder or staircase to get down to the ground, so I climbed and shimmied down the balcony structure and railings with my [7-year-old] son,” Pages said.
Pages told police he yelled for his wife to follow him, but she remained on the porch, afraid to come down the flaming staircase.
“She felt something hit her head, and I think that is what gave her the courage to come down,” Pages said.
Once they were on the ground, while Matthew Pages called 911, his wife called the downstairs neighbors. She also tried to call DeJesus to warn him about the fire. The couple on the first floor, Kristofer Dunn and Davi Sooknauta, quickly escaped, but DeJesus did not pick up his phone.
As firefighters responded to the fire barely a mile away from their headquarters, the neighbors told them that someone might have been trapped on the third floor.
Firefighters ran into the burning building but soon were stopped, not only by the heat of the blaze but also by not having access to the third floor. They yelled over their radios to Deputy Chief James DeMarest Jr. that the only door to the third floor was sealed.
“I received reports of obstacles from crews operating inside the building. They explained that a stairway to the third floor was covered in boxes and other miscellaneous items, and they could not get through the ‘wood,’” DeMarest later told state police investigators.
Fearing for the firefighters’ lives, the chief ordered the building evacuated and crews to fight the fire defensively. It took them about two more hours to put the fire out.
DeJesus’ body was found almost three hours after the fire was initially discovered, in the back of the house, under several pieces of wood that appeared to be remnants of the exterior staircase, according to Watertown police detective Mark Conway, who assisted state police investigators.
In his 14-page report, Conway described where DeJesus’ body was found.
“The body was located on the ground between the residence and the pickup truck,” Conway wrote. “The parts of the staircase were in the area and some pieces covered his legs. The area would be consistent with a person falling off of the staircase or being on the staircase when it collapsed.”
His injuries were so severe that the state medical examiner was unable to confirm his identity.
For several days he was referred to as “Oakville, Unidentified” until a DNA comparison with his father and his younger brother confirmed his identity.
Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Shana Straub concluded that DeJesus “had not jumped from the porch because he suffered no broken bones or fractures.” She concluded that he “potentially could have come down with the porch when it collapsed.”
His death was ruled an accident, and the cause of death was listed as thermal injuries.
Calabrese told investigators at the scene that her office and town assessor records considered it a two-family residence — an important distinction, because under state law, a three-story home would have required an annual safety inspection by the fire marshal and never would have passed with only one exit — the external staircase — from the top floor apartment.
Calabrese said the home had never been inspected by her office.
Cause undetermined
As word spread about the fire, DeJesus’ girlfriend, Rachel Robinson, came to the scene and told officials that DeJesus had been watching a football game at a friend’s house but was supposed to be home. She had been trying to call and text him, but there was no answer.
She told police that they had been dating for about four years but that DeJesus had lived in the third-floor apartment for six years and that his then-5-year-old son was sometimes with him on weekends — but not that weekend. She acknowledged he probably had been drinking at his friend’s house while watching the games.
Other neighbors said DeJesus was the only person that had lived in the renovated third-floor apartment.
“Over the four years since I have been coming over, I have never seen the landlord,” Robinson told investigators. “I have never seen anything new or updated in Joshua’s apartment or around the rental property. I feel that the landlord is kind of a slumlord.”
State police were never able to positively determine the cause of the fire, although they suspected a heated outdoor electrical cat box on the first-floor porch could have been the cause. Dunn told investigators he turned it on every night before going to bed.
They also did not rule out a stray cigarette butt or arson, although there was no evidence the fire was purposely set.
McGuigan said it was clear the fire started outside of the home, somewhere toward the back of the house near the driveway, where DeJesus’ badly burned truck was found.
It spread quickly, he added, because one of the tenants was a roofer and had multiple sources of flammable materials stored around the outside of the house.
The state police report described in detail the condition of DeJesus’ red 2011 Toyota Tundra Double Cab SR pickup truck, which was parked along the north exterior of the structure.
“The front exterior and engine compartment hood area of the pickup truck exhibited fire damage and oxidation. Plastic components at the front exterior of the grill sustained fire damage, melting, and were mainly consumed. Both headlight assemblies sustained fire damage,” Det. Kyle Faucher wrote.
“The vehicle’s windshield and all windows sustained fire damage. All window glass was observed to be broken at the time of the scene examination. The passenger side of the vehicle exhibited oxidation and fire damage. The rubber of the passenger side front and rear tires was consumed by fire,” he added.
The report noted while the driver’s side had less fire damage, “the upper portion of the driver side exterior sustained fire damage and thermal damage.”
Investigators believed the fire breached the home through a window that was open in the kitchen in the first floor apartment.
“Based upon the examination of the fire scene that included the analysis of fire patterns and effects, areas of greatest damage, physical evidence, witness statements, and a technical review with the Investigative Team, it is concluded that the fire that occurred on Saturday, January 15, 2022, at 214 Main Street in Oakville (Watertown), Connecticut, originated at the center area of the ground level patio at the north exterior of the structure,” Faucher wrote.
“Several hypotheses pertaining to the cause of the fire could not be disproven, thus, the cause of this fire remains undetermined,” Faucher wrote.
Both the Office of State Fire Marshal and the Office of the State Building Inspector were asked to review the town records of the construction that Guiseppe Polletta did at the home in 2015.
State building officials concluded the only inside access to the third floor was stairs “closed off by floor joists and hangers to create a third floor residential unit” that could only be accessed through rear outside stairs.
“In order to have created a legal three-family structure, a design professional would have been retained to work up a feasibility study per the state Building Code, Fire Marshal approval, Zoning approval to allow such a use and ultimately if allowed a permit for a change in occupancy, required inspections and a certificate of occupancy,” the report states.
None of that was done, records show. The report pointed out that the town assessor listed the home as a two-family residence.
The report concluded that the building was in violation of two state building codes — section 114 for construction of work without a permit and section 116 for an unsafe structure due to illegal occupancy.
Based on that report, state police detectives conducted a second search of the burned building more than two months after the blaze. To get the search warrant, state police told a judge they believed Guiseppe Polletta had filed a false police statement when he told them “the third floor apartment had always been rented even prior to his purchasing it.”
Two interviews
Guiseppe Polletta purchased 214 Main St. in 2005, town records show. On July 28, 2015, he took out a building permit for what was referred to as “porch repairs.” He estimated it would cost about $5,000 and paid the town an $80 fee.
There are no records that the Watertown Building Inspector Dino Radocchio ever inspected any of the work Guiseppe Polletta did using that permit, although that’s not what Guiseppe Polletta told police.
In his first interview with state police on the afternoon of the fire, Guiseppe Polletta said when a tenant moved out in 2015, he realized “that someone had been living on the third floor” and he “decided to address it.”
Guiseppe Polletta told investigators that he contacted Radocchio and was told that “a separate exit for the third floor was a permitted use providing that the decking and the set of stairs was not attached the existing stairwell.”
Polletta told police “the inspector was on site and inspected the concrete piers and porch. At that time I was told that the inspections were complete and it was OK for me to occupy the space.”
Guiseppe Polletta said that he had his own electrical company, PJ Electric, and that he did much of the electrical work himself. His son Joe Polletta is listed in state records as a partner in the company.
But in the search warrant application, they said there were no records of any inspections by either building officials or the fire marshal that “would be required for a building with three (3) or more separate living apartments.”
“No certificate of occupancy was ever issued for the attic apartment, which renders it an illegal apartment as a result of the conversion from a ‘two-family’ to a ‘three-family’ residence,” the search warrant states.
In the search warrant, state police told the judge they wanted to go back into the home to find evidence of the following crimes: filing a false statement, violating the state building code and violating the state fire safety codes.
State police seized from the third floor area where DeJesus had lived electrical wiring dated Oct. 2, 2015, sheetrock dated Feb. 24, 2016 and other electrical wires, all with 2015 dates on them.
They then called Guiseppe Polletta in for a second interview at Troop L in Litchfield on March 29, 2022. This time, Polletta had McGuigan with him.
While he told state police there was a “bonus apartment” on the third floor when he purchased the house, he acknowledged upgrading it and redoing the electrical wiring in 2015. He also said he knew there was no certificate of occupancy for someone to live on the third floor.
He said DeJesus was the only person who ever rented the apartment and that he paid $500 a month. The two other tenants paid $900 a month.
Guiseppe Polletta admitted sealing off the stairs to the third floor apartment on the inside of the building, leaving only the new outdoor stairwell as the only means of accessing the top floor. Guiseppe Polletta could not name any people who lived on the third floor previously and didn’t have any photos of the attic pre-2015 to prove that anyone was living there.
He couldn’t tell state police who the tenant was on the second floor in 2015 when he sealed the inside door.
But that former tenant contacted state police herself after hearing about the fatal fire.
Nina Giustiniani told detectives she moved into the second floor at 214 Main St. in November 2014 and lived there with her children until October 2019. She said when she moved in it was a “two-family” home.
She told state police in a written statement that “Mr. Polletta mentioned to her that he was “going to do something” with the third floor, and he requested that she not put any items in the attic.
‘Landlords are people too’
Only a few days before state police did the second search of the Main Street house and re-interviewed his father, Joe Polletta participated in several public hearings regarding proposals to regulate the landlord-tenant relationship.
Joe Polletta frequently uses the term “housing provider” rather than “landlord,” a language shift that’s grown more popular recently among pro-landlord groups who say the term is harsh or villainous.
It’s been paired with a rise in gatherings and merchandise focused on the message that “landlords are people too.”
In April 2021, Joe Polletta voted against House Bill 6433, which required that tenants be offered a walk-through of a property before they start renting it. The act also required the Department of Housing to create a checklist so tenants and landlords could document conditions before the start of a lease.
“I would venture to guess that the vast majority of landlords in the state of Connecticut are good stand-up citizens,” Joe Polletta said in discussion of that bill.
He and other Republicans also voted against 2022 legislation that expanded the number of fair rent commissions in Connecticut and the 2023 controversial housing omnibus bill that included a slew of new protections for renters as well as a study on statewide zoning reform.
In April, he and other Republicans voted against a wide-ranging bill that, in part, requires landlords to provide 45-day notice of rent increases.
During the 2023 legislative session, during a public hearing, Joe Polletta also spoke against a bill that would have capped annual rent increases. He said he feared the bill would discourage landlords from providing housing and that it would mean maintenance and repairs wouldn’t be made as quickly.
“If you are told that you can only raise the rent by so much and you cannot in essence turn any profit on a property, or very little profit, what then will happen to the basic necessities around the place?” he said.
The bill, he said, would also create a more tenuous relationship between landlords and tenants.
“That is going to create a very hostile environment between the landlord and the tenant,” he said during the public hearing. “So you know the old saying, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ You put something into place, you might think that you’re trying to help a particular group of people, and this may in turn end up hurting them.”