Glastonbury High School custodian fired over chase in parking lot

Mar. 18—GLASTONBURY — A custodian at the local high school was fired at the beginning of the school year as a result of an incident in which he and an 18-year-old graduate of the school chased each other through the parking lot in vehicles and collided at least once.

The custodian — Daniel Jordan, 41, who has listed addresses in East Hartford and Glastonbury — said he was unable to contest the firing through the grievance process under a "last chance agreement" he had signed in February 2021.

After investigating the Aug. 26 vehicle chase, police Officer Jessica Bilboa applied for a warrant to arrest Jordan on charges including second-degree reckless endangerment. But Bilboa wrote in a report that the state's attorney's office rejected the warrant on grounds that Jordan was "no more culpable than the other driver" and "it occurred in a parking lot."

On the night of the incident, Jordan and the other driver, Colin Zachary Amato, each claimed that the other had caused the collision, the officer reported. Later, she learned that the high school had surveillance video of the incident.

The video shows the Honda Accord that Amato was driving run a stop sign into the path of the Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle Jordan was driving, the officer reported. She went on to describe the following:

The Honda backed up and let the Explorer through. There was no sign of an altercation at the time. But the video showed that the two vehicles drove through the parking lot for about three minutes, with each following the other at times.

At one point, the two vehicles parked next to each other for a few seconds. The Honda then tried to drive off and the Explorer tried to block it. Both vehicles were stopped at that point, but the Explorer turned into the driver's side of the Honda, the officer reported.

After additional maneuvering by the Explorer, the Honda drove off. The Explorer appeared to chase it but didn't follow it out of the parking lot.

In a subsequent police interview, Jordan said he believed the other car was part of an ongoing problem in which cars drag race and do other maneuvers in the high school parking lot all night. He said he followed the Honda and blocked a driveway to get its license plate number, intending to call police.

Jordan confirmed that he had hit the Honda but said he didn't do so "on purpose," the officer reported.

But in a recent interview, Jordan denied having admitted to the officer that he hit the other car. He maintained that the other car hit his SUV twice, in their encounter at the stop sign and the subsequent encounter.

In the Sept. 14 letter firing Jordan, school system Business Manager Karen Bonfiglio said that, during a meeting five days earlier, Jordan "refused to offer any information or explanation regarding the incident."

In a lengthy interview, Jordan described years of conflict with his superiors over issues ranging from the behavior of two of his subordinates when he was head custodian at the Glastonbury-East Hartford Magnet School on Oak Street to his complaints about mold and other safety problems there.

The last chance agreement stemmed from an incident on Dec. 10, 2020, in which Jordan angrily confronted the school's principal and vice principal, demanding that his subordinate be fired, according to a memo to Jordan from school system Human Resources Manager Rose Brown.

Brown wrote that Jordan later threw a set of keys toward two of his supervisors, which she said was "unprofessional and disrespectful" and risked injury to others.

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