Chief State's Attorney Richard Colangelo Jr. has reprimanded a senior assistant state's attorney for reportedly calling his supervisor, Hartford State's Attorney Gail Hardy, a "liar" on Zoom during her reappointment hearing last month.

It's not clear if Mark Brodsky knew his mute button wasn't on when he made the remark.

In the one-page letter outlining the reprimand in which Brodsky will lose two paid vacation days, Colangelo wrote: "It is very important for you to keep in mind that as prosecutors, we are judged not only on our behavior during the workday, but also for how we conduct ourselves outside of the workplace. Your actions and the public comments during the hearing on June 26 not only reflected poorly on you but on the division as well. As ministers of justice, we have an obligation to act professionally at all times."

Colangelo's letter noted Brodksy waived his right to a predisciplinary hearing.

"I appreciate the fact that you have accepted responsibility for your actions," Colangelo wrote.

While the letter doesn't specify what remarks Brodsky made, media outlets report  the prosecutor was heard to have called Hardy a "liar" during the Zoom event.

Colangelo declined to comment for this report. Neither Brodsky nor Hardy responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

At the time of the incident, the Criminal Justice Commission was meeting to vote on Hardy's reappointment as Hartford state's attorney. But as the commission was in executive session, it was announced Hardy had accepted a job to lead diversity and inclusion efforts for Colangelo's offices in Rocky Hill.

Hardy will remain as Hartford state's attorney until a replacement is named.

Hardy had come under fire for her handling of several police-involved shootings. In fact, a week before the Criminal Justice Commission Zoom hearing, the commission had suspended Hardy for four days without pay for her timeliness in issuing reports on the shootings.

Legal experts called the reprimand of Brodsky fair.

"It was unbecoming the conduct of a prosecutor. He was not behaving as one would hope a senior prosecutor would behave, so I understand where they see it was important to reprimand him in some way," said Leslie Levin, a University of Connecticut School of Law professor.

But what about First Amendment rights?

"It's complicated, but when someone says something they believe and it's stated in a public hearing, there are some protections. It raises for me some First Amendment questions," Levin said. "But from the letter from the chief state's attorney, it looks like Mr. Brodsky agreed to the reprimand and did not raise those issues. He must have recognized what he did was inappropriate, and went along with the sanctions."

Longtime Hartford attorney Jamie Sullivan called the reprimand "fair," and said the episode raises questions about using Zoom.

"His comments may have been inadvertent, meaning he may have realized he was not on mute. Those things are happening a lot during the pandemic," said Sullivan, co-author of a book on Connecticut legal ethics and a partner with Howard, Kohn, Sprague & FitzGerald. "I bet this guy thought he was on mute and blurted out that she was a liar."

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