Those that follow SeanPaul “Long Island Audit” Reyes were not surprised on Tuesday as he and a contingent of his supporters, made more public statements at the Groton, Connecticut, City Council meeting aimed at toppling the administration of Mayor Rachel Franco and bring funds to his on-going outraged based GoFundMe, but may not have been prepared for an off-hand announcement he made during his live broadcast.
Reyes was accompanied by usual sidekicks Jim “Scalzo Photo” Lo Scalzo and Leonard “Leroy Truth” Filipowski. They were joined by Brian “LTL Media” Nicholas, who is a YouTuber from Boston and a local resident named Ian Thomas.
Nicholas and Filipowski would position themselves in imposing spots next to the public speaking podium while monitoring their camera equipment. The group as a whole would loudly applaud for negative comments about the mayor, town manager or city council itself and drowned out reactions from locals.
About eight Groton residents were in the meeting room with two Groton police officers as Reyes entered. He had started the livestream by reminding his audience that he was there to demand to know why the video he received of Groton police interacting with retired Connecticut State Trooper Bryan Fahey was “doctored” as it had the sound removed.
As he sat in his chair, he then told his viewership that he had been told but only had “anecdotal” evidence that mayor Franco and town manager John Burt were having improper extra martial relations. Adding “allegedly” after a pause to apparently protect himself from making a direct accusation.
He would later forget to use the “allegedly” when referring to the alleged interaction between the two.
While Reyes was speaking, Filipowski could be heard in the background yelling at town manager Burt that a member of their team couldn’t make it and was denied access to attend the meeting via Zoom call. Filipowski made it clear that anyone who wanted to speak should be able to have access via Zoom in “this day and age.”
Reyes complained that mayor Franco had previously made the decision without a vote of the council to change the rules of public speaking. Attendees were again limited to two minutes per person to speak with the public speaking portion of the meeting not going over thirty minutes.
At the previous city council meeting, Reyes had threatened to sue the mayor and the town council over this matter, claiming it targeted him in an effort to chill his first amendment rights. He had given the mayor and town manager thirty days to respond to a demand letter he hand delivered to the city council that night. He indicated that he had received no response from either government official by the start of the meeting.
Before the public speaking portion of the meeting began, city councilperson Portia Bordelon put in a motion to restore the rules of public speaking to the previous allotments of five minutes per person and remove the cap on speaking time. She received no second and the motion did not move forward.
Brian Nicholas was the first of the group to speak, addressing “spit gate.” He said that at the August 5, 2025, city council meeting, Mayor Franco brought up an issue where city councilperson Jill Rusk said that someone had spit on her chair before the meeting. The mayor indicated that the room had security cameras and Nicholas said she blamed the incident on Reyes and his supporters.
Nicholas said that he had put in a freedom of information request for the footage of the town hall meeting from August and found that no one had spat on the city councilperson’s chair.
Local Ian Thomas was second, who expressed concern that the mayor cited the wrong rule when she made the decision to change public speaking rules and that a vote was required to change the rules. He demanded an immediate investigation into the mayor’s actions.
A local woman made a passionate statement in support of city councilperson Portia Bordelon next.
Reyes was the next person to speak, announcing that he was following through with his federal lawsuit against the city based on the mayor’s “illegal” decision to change the rules of public speaking.
He then demanded to know why there was no audio on the bodycam footage he received from Groton police of the July event at the home of now former state trooper Bryan Fahey.
Addressing town manager Burt, he inquired about an internal affairs investigation into the incident but received no reply.
YouTuber Jim “Scalzo Photo” Lo Scalzo was up next and followed up on Nicholas’ remarks, claiming that city councilperson Rusk had lied about there being anything on her chair. According to his account, he viewed the video evidence, and he claimed that a wet mark was found on the chair only after Rusk put her fingers in the area where she said there was spit.
Scalzo finished his remarks by stating that he had FOIA requested all of the messages received by the city council from Reyes’s supporters and found that no one had sent anything that could be considered threatening to the town council.
Filipowski was the last member of the group to speak and immediately accused the Mayor Franco of engaging in illegal “quid pro quo.” He said that a contractor for the city testified under oath that Mayor Franco offered him a contract in exchange for silencing historic district commission member John Goodrich.
The bald YouTuber said that “dictator” Franco would be facing 10 years in jail for quid pro quo and asked what her favorite color of prison uniform would be.
Inexplicably, he then said that he had to make a personal call, which he put on speakerphone and held up to the microphone. He had called the Federal Bureau of Investigation and quickly hung up while in the audio menu.
Mayor Franco called a brief recess following his comments. During the recess, the woman who had spoken in support of city councilperson Portia Bordelon started screaming at Reyes’ group that they were being punished for the group’s bad behavior.
She was removed by police.
A second woman echoed similar comments and engaged with Reyes and members of his group. After Reyes dismissed her, he mocked the locals, gleefully stating that their taxes would go up after he won a judgment against the city.
Around this time, Reyes announced that he would be running for political office in the future and for all of his supporters in “strong island” to pay attention to future announcements as he needed their support.
With the crowd quickly turning against them, Reyes’ group would then move to the front of the row of chairs and begin to shout at the mayor and city council. They remained in place as the council reconvened, and councilperson Bordelon made remarks complaining about her role on the council.
Reyes announced that he would be returning to Florida in the near future to protest Melbourne, Florida, Mayor Paul Alfrey, made more comments about a big payoff at the expense of Groton taxpayers, and reminded his fans that he represented “we the people” before signing off for the night.
The livestream saw a total of 193,000 views as of press time, with 6880 peak concurrent viewers. It brought in $61.00 in super chat donations, 16,000 likes and 1,836 comments.
Updated: Reyes managed to win Tuesday’s crowd sourcing title with a $100.00 donation to his Help Me Fight these Unlawful Charges & Injustice GoFundMe campaign.
The Help Me Fight campaign tied with his Support The Fight Against Tyranny & Corruption campaign on Wednesday to take the top slot with twin $25.00 donations.
Thursday’s results were more of the same, with the Help Me Fight campaign taking in $20.00 to win the day.
No other campaigns that we follow received donations for the three-day period.
