There Are Still Many Unanswered Questions About GOP IT Guru's Tragic Plane Crash

By Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story. Posted January 17, 2009.

"Connell," the reporter said, "was apparently told by a close friend not to fly his plane because his plane might be sabotaged. ... And twice in the last two months, Connell, who is an experienced pilot, canceled two flights because of suspicious problems with his plane."

The friend to whom this statement was attributed has not been identified. Raw Story has not been able to independently confirm that Connell had been warned specifically not to fly.

It’s also unclear if the reference to Connell canceling "two flights because of suspicious problems with his plane" was confused with one actual aborted flight and a second flight suspected to have been aborted, or if these cancellations are in addition to the those two flights.

One Aborted Flight Confirmed

On Sept. 18, 2008, just a day before a stay was lifted in the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell case - which alleged vote tampering in Ohio during the 2004 election - Connell embarked on a flight from the Akron-Canton airport. According to flight data obtained by Raw Story, he was heading to the College Park, MD airport, which he often used when attending meetings and functions in DC.

Connell’s trip lasted only 23 minutes before he turned around and returned to the Akron-Canton airport. (See flight data below):

King Lincoln Bronzeville

On Sept. 22, Connell was subpoenaed to testify in the King Lincoln Bronzeville case.

During a Sept. 25, 2008 meeting with Connell’s wife Heather near their home in Akron, Ohio, Ms. Connell explained to this reporter that her husband had aborted his Sept. 18 flight "due to engine trouble." Ms. Connell also stated that her husband "then took a commercial flight instead" to make "his DC meeting." She did not know with whom he was meeting in Washington.

Raw Story met with Ms. Connell several months prior to Connell’s death as part of another, but related investigation.

Neither Ms. Connell, nor anyone else close to her husband interviewed at that time, claimed that any tampering was involved or expressed suspicions about this flight. However, if Connell himself was suspicious, he might not have shared those suspicions with his wife.

Connell had not, apparently, shared with his wife the news that he'd been subpoenaed in King Lincoln Bronzeville Sept. 22.

Ms. Connell expressed shock at learning that her husband had been called to testify and expressed doubt when informed that her husband was a witness in a federal case.

"I don’t believe it," Ms. Connell told Raw Story. "He is a good man. He has done nothing wrong."

The case known as King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell was initially filed against former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell on Aug. 31, 2006 by Columbus attorney Clifford Arnebeck on behalf of several Ohio residents.

The original filing alleged that there had been civil rights violations by Blackwell during the 2004 election, involving racially discriminatory practices such as the selective purging of voters from the election rolls and the unequal allocation of voting machines to various districts. The filing asked for measures to be taken to prevent similar problems during the November 2006 election.

On Oct. 9, 2006, an amended complaint was filed that added various forms of ballot-rigging as also having the effect of "depriving the Plaintiffs of their voting rights." A motion to dismiss the case as moot was filed following the November 2006 election, but instead it was stayed to allow for settlement discussions. That stay was later extended, and the case dragged on for almost two years for lack of detailed evidence.

Connell’s lawyers fought the subpoena and refused to furnish the plaintiffs with IT network schematics relating to the 2004 and 2006 elections.

See more stories tagged with: gop, karl rove, rnc, michael connell, it guru

Larisa Alexandrovna is managing editor of investigative news for Raw Story and regularly reports on intelligence and national security stories. Contact: larisa@rawstory.com.

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