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Puckvoice




Stampeding Buffalo: Adventures with Joe Kolodziej
When bad people happen to good communities, jonesing for hockey...
17 November 2004 Examiner

Puckvoice™ is my voice, see?  It's got nothing to do with art.  If that's what you were looking for, you'd better move on.  Anyone who's tellin' ya any different, is razzin' ya.

It began on a bright sunny day in January, 2004.  I know. I shoulda waited for a dark and stormy night.

It was an e-mail from a Puckvoice™ reader in New York City.  The Big Apple.  Gotham.  Maybe you've heard of it. Seems this doll had been hanging around on message boards, the kind of message boards that people who like hockey can hang around without it looking funny.  She'd heard that a new team was coming to Buffalo. A semi-pro team.  She wanted me to look into it. Because that's the kind of gal I am.

I poked around a bit.  All clues led to one guy: Joseph Raymond Kolodziej.  You say his name like you're saying "cologne," but then you stop suddenly and say "jay" for no good reason.  Kolodziej.

Kolodziej was no stranger to hockey.  Almost, but it's like being dead: you are or you aren't.  He'd co-owned a team in Michigan. The Predators. They played in the International Independent Hockey League.  Evidently all the good league names had been taken.  The IIHL was broke, wasn't paying its bills.  Kolodziej ceased operations of his team, walked away from the League and its questionable financial practices.  Very upstanding.
I e-mailed Kolodziej.  He was bringing a team to the North Eastern Hockey League.  A West Seneca boy, he wanted a Buffalo team.  I'm a hockey fan in Buffalo, facing a dead NHL season. I liked the way he thought.  Kolodziej was hungry for media attention, so he was on me like white on rice, but without all the carbs.

Well, some of the carbs.  There were a lot of products from the Labatt family of breweries involved whenever Kolodziej and I met up.  It was research. Well-lubricated research.  He owned a hockey team.  He drank a good Canadian beer.  He was an ex-pat moving back to Buffalo.  And he was a riot to go out drinking with.  What was not to like?

The Charges

In March, I started to get the feeling there was something not to like. Pieces started to fit together.  Or not fit, as the case really was.  After a stream of constant e-mails, suddenly Kolodziej was quiet for a few days. He said a friend had passed away. Plausible enough.  Three weeks later, he told me where he'd really been: the hoosegow.  The lock-up.  The slammer.

Seems he'd had trouble with a fella named Considine, his partner in the Predators.  Told me he sued Considine for lots of cabbage. Considine got him arrested, just to get some leverage.  I know a little something about the law, but when I asked for details, he was suddenly discreet: "i cant comment on it much other than i didnt do anything illegal."  (That boy never could write or spell, but if I put [sic] after everything he messed up, I'd be over my word limit before we got to the good part.)

I told Kolodziej, " Of course you wouldn't do anything illegal, because then you'd be prohibited from entering Canada, and it's just way too long a drive to Michigan otherwise." Found out later, the length of the trip was the least of Kolodziej's worries when it came to driving, especially in Canada.

I believe in "innocent until proven guilty." I went to law school; it was on the exam.  And I didn't have much information about what happened in Michigan. I had to choose. Believe this Considine person I'd never met. Or give the benefit of the doubt to a fun, beer-drinking guy who wanted to bring a hockey team to Buffalo. During the lockout.  I'm Canadian.  Enough said.  And not easy after seeing John Rigas in handcuffs only months before, if you ask me.

I'm a sportswriter.  I continued to tell the story: a new team coming, team-naming contest, blah, blah, blah. I added disclaimers: "I can't verify this…" "I only know what he's told me…" etc. I talked to a friend in the district attorney's office.  Those types of charges usually get dismissed pretty readily. "Unless there's serious identity theft involved." Kolodziej held a press conference to unveil the new logo and team name.  He seemed confident that these charges in Michigan were just a nuisance.  Turns out, that's what denial looks like.

The Franchise

A reporter from the big daily came to the press conference. She wasn't a sports reporter. She had only one question and had to be off to cover a bus accident.  She ignored everything else, both there and in her story.  She asked if the NEHL had awarded the Buffalo franchise. Said that "an [NEHL] official" had told them Kolodziej's bid hadn't been accepted yet.  She didn't have the guy's name.  She hadn't even talked to him.

The "official" who made the phone call?  It wasn't the president.  Or the commissioner.  Or even the vice president of media relations.  It was Rob Madia, a player.  Player and general manager for the Jamestown Titans, one of the four teams in the league.  To my knowledge, Darcy Regier has never contacted the media on behalf of the NHL.  It just doesn't work that way, not normally.

Before I ran my story on the newly-named Buffalo Stampede, I wanted to confirm Kolodziej held the Buffalo franchise rights.  I needed to talk to Jim Cashman, owner and president of the NEHL.  Seemed like he'd qualify as an "official." Seemed like he doesn't check his voice mail, either.  Kolodziej's intermittent discretion kicked in again – about Cashman's cell number.  The agreement I needed was at his mother's house in West Seneca —  we were downtown. I called to remind him to bring the contracts with him — we were mysteriously cut off. "[T]he IIHL is begging me to come back," he e-mailed, "so phone ringing off hook thats why i lost you earlier, damn call waiting." Kolodziej was underestimating my intelligence. Nailing my gullibility dead on, but underestimating my intelligence.

We met the next morning.  Kolodziej brought  the franchise agreement.  It was signed by Cashman, dated 13 January 2004.  He verified he's not in breach.  My story went in, worded much more carefully than perhaps Kolodziej suspected, vouching only for what I've seen with my own eyes.

As time went on, things didn’t add up.  Everything with Kolodziej was always in the works — no final products. Lawsuits brought to clear his good name weren't filed with the courts: trouble with process service. Business cards weren't made up: still looking for office space. T-shirts he said five weeks ago would be ready in three weeks: "They printed them on 100% cotton and I need 50/50." Cashman was always going to meet with us, but never showed up.

Then, Rob Madia hit the fan.  He e-mailed me crying libel, claiming to be an honest-to-God official of the NEHL.  His e-mail didn't bother me.  The e-mail history contained in it did.  There was an e-mail from Kolodziej to Madia, stating, "I have just read the … article. I appologize, Suzanne mis quoted me and I have spoken to her."  That seemed an odd thing to say.  Odd, because Kolodziej had not "spoken" to me.  Odd, because Kolodziej read the entire article before it went to my editor.  Odd, because Kolodziej verified the truth of everything in the article to myself and to my editor before the article was submitted.

Madia couldn't sit still, for reasons I can only guess.  He stormed the newspaper offices, donning his best ripped cut-offs and leather collar.  My editor called.  Better get over here. I called Kolodziej in Michigan. Left a message with his wife.  As I sat with Madia, my publisher, and my editor, Kolodziej called back.  He stood by all he had said. No "appology" like he had sent to Madia.

The Wife

Another problem: leaving a message with Kolodziej's wife. Kolodziej was divorced.  He said so.  Three years ago.  He didn't cheat. She's a great girl. They just got married too young.  He told a lot of people he was divorced, mainly on web dating sites. He was particular about his partners, he said.  He hadn't had sex in over a year. I thought he might be trying to get me into bed.  Evidently he was trying to get anyone into bed.  He schmoozed two different women up to programmed-into-the-cell-phone stage within two hours one night.  He was smooth.

Not so smooth that the internet didn’t blow his cover time and again. He told me he was financing the team with money inherited from his father.  The story was so sad, I had to check it out.  The facts bore out his tale, but Kolodziej was listed in the obituary as surviving his father.  With his spouse.  His unsuspecting spouse.  Pathological liars are fun; you can ask them questions and make them embellish their lies to no end.  My favourite part was where they amicably worked out custody of their son. I imagine that's easier when only one spouse knows about the divorce.

Cashman

Around then, Kolodziej started using a different "yahoo" address.  He started going by the name "Joe Smith." Joe "I've Got A Suspicious Alias" Smith. By now I was just amused at bizarre mix of hockey and mystery.

The Amerks were in the playoffs.  We planned to go to Rochester together for Game 4.  He was driving. Game day, Cashman decided to join us.  They'd pick me up at 5.00 pm.  I'd finally meet this Cashman fellow, finally get answers to my questions.  At 5.30 pm, I called Kolodziej's cell.  They were on the road.  They got talking. You know how guys are. Forgot they were picking me up. He'd kept me from meeting Cashman again.

So I went to Rochester on my own. Tricky, since I don't own a car.  Kolodziej called my cell during the game.  Ha,ha — we're at the game and you're not.  I heard him skip just a fraction of a beat when I told him I was in the press box.  He couldn't avoid me after the game.  We'd all be out with the players he pretended he knew.

And so we were, out with players I’d known for years... watched like a hawk by Kolodziej.

How long does a man have to go to the bathroom before he takes a chance that the façade falls?  Evidently, a long time. Kolodziej finally excused himself. Cashman and I were unsupervised. In a split second, Cashman's joking demeanor went flat.  He leaned over to me quite seriously. He had never signed any franchise agreement with Kolodziej, despite anything I’d seen.  He had, in fact, granted Kolodziej the franchise — he stood behind that.  His concern was that Kolodziej had forged that document. Cashman had had his business card at the ready since before Kolodziej stood up.  With his cell number on it.  I should talk to him only about League affairs from that point forward. Kolodziej returned to the table. Cashman loudly and happily continued a conversation about hockey that we hadn't been having.

Show Me the Money

Over the next couple of weeks, Cashman and I pieced together what Kolodziej had told each of us.  It was a puzzle, but not the good kind.  Nothing fit. 

Kolodziej kept planning trips back to Buffalo that never materialized.  And he never mentioned any old friends who lived here that he wanted to see. He seemed anxious to get out of Petoskey, MI.  Too anxious.  I’d asked him in February what he was running from.  In the last couple of months we'd answered that question.

Some things didn't add up from the beginning.  He’d sent me his playing history. I couldn't confirm a single hockey team.  They were there, but every dang one of them was out of business or didn't have rosters from that long ago.  I couldn't verify that he didn't play for them, either.  Sneaky.

He sent me the top history in January.  I found the bottom history on-line in September.  He says he played in Europe in both.  Maybe that's what he told his family.  Find the season that is almost exactly the same in both. I'll give you a hint: he didn't play hockey that year, but he's still in the books, somewhere. 
Year Team League GP G A PIM
87/88 Naprzsd Jansw Polish League 16 8 7 24
88/89 Naprzsd Jansw Polish League 28 11 12 46
89/90 ECD Sauerland 2.Liga Nord (D) 27 17 22 36
90/91 Hedos M|nchen 1. Bundesliga 19 7 8 54
91/92 Hedos M|nchen 1. Bundesliga 46 9 23 64
92/93 Hannover Turtles 2. Bundesliga 48 13 16 62
93/94 Phoenix River Rats CIHL 28 18 19 64
94/95 Muskegon Fury CoHL IR


95/96 Madison Monsters CoHL 4 0 0 0
96/97 Dayton Ice Bandits CoHL 3 0 0 7
99/00 Northern Michigan Bears Semi-pro 36 29 32 84
00/01 Northern Michigan Bears Semi-pro 36 38 29 102
01/02 Northern Michigan Bears Semi-pro 22 21 19 68


Year Team League GP G A PIM
85/88 SUNNY Oswego the SUNNY system...obviously 68 28 59 163
88/89 Naprzód Janów Polish League 26 11 17 82
89/90 Augsburger Panthers 2. Bundesliga 16 5 12 52
90/91 GKS Tychy Polish League 22 13 26 64
91/92 Naprzód Janów Polish League 26 18 22 62
92/93 Hasle/Løren NOR 1. divisjon 22 17 31 56
93/94 Lakeland Ice Warriors SHL 8 1 4 32
94/95 Muskegon Fury CoHL 5 0 0 0
95/96 Madison Monsters CoHL 4 0 1 0
96/97 Dayton Ice Bandits CoHL IR



http://sportzdomain.com/albums/album12/joekolodziejcheck.jpg
This is the only photo available of Kolodziej playing hockey.  It's entitled "Joe Kolodziej checking."  One guy is falling off his skates, and the other one is kicking him in the, um, other knee.  Neither of them look like Kolodziej.  He posted it himself (along with the "Kolodziej at the Office" photo posted below) at the IIHL Gallery on http://www.sportzdomain.com.

© SportzDomain.com
The man financing the Buffalo Stampede never had any money, either.  To wit: May 26.  Amherst Pepsi Center.  The Buffalo Wings had a double-header.  Kolodziej showed up with two members of his "staff" to promote the Stampede to roller hockey fans.  His salesperson had 10 colour printouts.  Kolodziej evidently sent him to a printer with twenty bucks and a disk.  That morning.  There were no other sales materials.,The Wings kill in their first game (21-4).Team owner Jason Klein invited Kolodziej and me to lunch with the team. Kolodziej offered 'contracts' to some of the players.  They eat their pizza.  Kolodziej bad-mouths Cashman, a nasty habit of his.  I made a mental note that Kolodziej thinks I am deaf.  Klein paid for our lunch.

Later that day.  HSBC Arena.  A scheduling conflict put the Amerks in Buffalo for two playoff games.  Kolodziej was to meet me at the game.  He'd get a comp ticket from a player he's "friends" with.  I introduced him to that player two months ago.  I wasn't buying it.

Neither was Kolodziej.  He called the player, said he was cash-strapped because he'd paid for everybody's lunch.  The player had no comps.  Kolodziej had no money.  Mid-game, I called Kolodziej's cell.  He'd gone home.  To get sleep -- perhaps before the long drive with Cashman to his meeting in Montreal the next day. But  no, he wasn't going to Montreal.  Something came up he had to be back for on Monday.  Little did he know…

Road Trip


Cashman attended Sunday's Amerks game.  Kolodziej had never cancelled the Montreal trip.  He hadn't contacted Cashman at all.  He'd told only me, a hockey reporter with (as far as he knows) no connection to the other parties in his meeting.  Cashman suspected that something he'd heard about Kolodziej might be true.  It would explain what Kolodziej had just done.

Cashman had met a former Predators goaltender with Kolodziej one night.  Kolodziej typically kept late hours.  That night, however, he went home early.  He left Cashman with the former player.  The player confirmed that Kolodziej was still married.  Not too hung up about it, but still married.  There were allegations of drug use, which I had heard as "trafficking" from a media source before then, and was waiting for confirmation on.  And there was the prior felony.  Not sure what, but it meant he couldn't cross the border into Canada.  Kolodziej was an "undesireable."  His own goalie said so.

More Charges, Less Money


Cashman decided that night to make a criminal background check part of the franchise agreement when he did sign it.  At 10.32 pm, I e-mailed him the link to conduct a criminal conviction search through the Michigan State Police.  Kolodziej saved him a couple of bucks. The next morning, Kolodziej called me. From the back seat of a squad car.  Looking for bail money.

Kolodziej had outstanding warrants in Amherst.  Buffalo as well.  But not the $500 he needed for bail.  He was evidently unlicensed. In fact, when he was charged with the four separate felonies in Michigan, he received a bonus misdemeanor for driving with a suspended license. He spent the night in the holding center.  Pesky laws.

I sat with Kolodziej's sister, Karyn, at the arraignment the next day.  She told me no end of tales about her brother's criminal past. She may have an active imagination.  He may have aliases we haven't found yet.  Nothing prepared me for what she told the bailiff.  Her brother needed his prescription medication.  For his brain tumour.

Kolodziej may very well have a brain tumour.  He told me so later, the last night I ever saw him.  And he may very well have inherited enough money from his father to buy and run a hockey team.  He may have been totally framed by his partner in Michigan. He may well have (this is a personal favourite) saved all of his money from his playing years and bought Snapple stock with it.  I wanted to believe.  More than the rest, I wanted to believe the brain tumour.

I wish I could verify what his sister had told me. It would explain a great deal. Would explain why he won't get his license back.  Would explain why he can't go to Canada. Would explain why his wife (according to Karyn) is so damned angry.  I've got a problem with what she knows, though.  That morning, prisoners were paraded in and out of the courtroom for arraignment, like cattle getting due process.  Karyn gasped when she saw her brother. 

"He looks awful!" she exclaimed.  Her concern for his brain tumour reached a new height, and she saw how one night in jail had ravaged her brother.  Problem was, it wasn't him. Personally, I thought that guy looked better.  But Karyn's credibility disappeared faster than a coonhound at bath time.  Her alleged intimate knowledge of him should have at least started with what he looks like. 

Then Kolodziej was brought in. He wore an expression of complete indignation.  And handcuffs. How dare the judicial system waste his time like this. The warrant in Buffalo was for a bounced cheque to Hills department store.  Hard to pay them back now.  What should have shamed him was the financial situation that came to light.  He didn't have $250 for bail in Amherst.  Or — when the Buffalo warrant showed up — the $500 for both arrests.  And he asked for a Public Defender.  He promised my town a hockey team.  But he didn't have $250 to get out of jail.
http://sportzdomain.com/albums/album12/joekolodziej.jpg
Kolodziej's cockiness never waned.  Not even in the face of facts.  Who else would call a reporter for bail money?  Cashman had seen what Kolodziej had posted on the internet about past partners.  Nothing had ever been Kolodziej's fault.  Everyone else had lied.  Everyone else had cheated.  Everyone else was to blame.  Cashman knew that getting Kolodziej out of the NEHL meant getting Kolodziej to think it was his own idea.  Kolodziej walked right into it: "I think I am going to get someone else to run the team and be the focal point," he e-mailed me.  "I cant handle the stress of all this."  He even alluded to other options for his future: "if i have to i will walk away and give all the work to someone so they can carry on.  i still have options down south that are open even after all this."  Finally, he 'came up with' the idea of getting out of the Buffalo market: "i give up everything in buffalo, turn over all contacts ect, and [Cashman] gives me jamestown.  i assume the 12 k debt he has there and move on.  this gets me out of the spotlight, keeps jamestown in the league and gives jim the local he needs."  What really happened was nothing close.

The IHA

Cashman was bringing Canadian teams into the NEHL.  He wanted a new name.  A name to reflect the international character.  He chose the International Hockey Association.  Because lousy names like International Independent Hockey League were taken.  But he made the mistake of telling Kolodziej that the new name.  One completely unreliable source says that Kolodziej always planned to steal the league from Cashman.  Plan or no, it's what he did.,Kolodziej created the IHA web site.  He listed his home address in Michigan as headquarters.  He listed himself as president.  He sent out information regarding an IHA draft camp, requesting that the $200 tryout fee be sent to him in Petoskey.  Credit card information was also welcome.  God help anyone who sent it.

Kolodziej tried to discredit Cashman.  He emailed me that Cashman partied too much.  He told me Cashman wasn't doing any work.  I'd talked to Cashman past midnight many nights about contract law and marketing.  That was Cashman's idea of a party.  Slacker.

Kolodziej pillaged Cashman's contacts for league expansion.  Told them that Cashman had no money.  His evidence was the $12,000 debt in Jamestown: the $12,000 debt that Kolodziej had agreed to assume. He convinced Alain Lemieux (Mario's brother) to breach his contract with Cashman, and work with Kolodziej instead.  Cashman would never pay him, Kolodziej said.  Kolodziej, by all reports, has never paid Lemieux.http://www.staylorlaw.com/Images/Stampede.jpg

Kolodziej put forth the IHA as a holding of his Michigan corporation, "MCS, Inc."  He posted logos for proposed teams on the IHA site.  Dave Mann, a talented graphic artist who designed the Stampede logo as part of a design contest, was never paid the $500 promised for use of the winning logo.  Other logos came from the same sports logo designer message boards as part of a redesign project they took on for themselves.  No promises were made.  No payment was ever discussed.  The only assumption those designers made was that Kolodziej would respect copyright law.  They didn't know him very well.

The designers told Kolodziej they were on to him.  The logos came off of the team web site.  But Kolodziej didn't own the www.buffalostampedehockey.com web site – a web site designer in Georgia did.  The owner didn't appreciate theft of intellectual property.  He removed the Stampede site.  Put up a "Boycott the IHA" message about copyright infringement instead.,Cashman had now walked away from the NEHL/IHA to avoid having any connection the Kolodziej.  Cashman owned the IHA's web site, where the rest of the logos were illegally posted.  Cashman changed the password.  Kolodziej sweet-talked someone at the hosting server; he changed the password.  Back to the original one.  Wanting never to have to explain any connection to Kolodziej, Cashman removed the site from the server altogether.

Message boards were a large part of Kolodziej's M.O.  He used them like rented mules that people all over the country talk to.  Swearing like a sailor, spelling like a sailor's parrot.  It wasn't pretty.  His posts alluded to information he would not be so indiscreet as to publish.  His posts were true.  His detractors posted verifiable facts, in detail.  They were lying.  The master of frequent free internet access: whenever something I e-mailed Kolodziej made him "L[H]FAO," I pictured him as the nutbar at the library, laughing maniacally at a joke no one else could see.  I never could verify Kolodziej's alleged lawsuits against anybody.  Turns out they were only filed in his head.  Kolodziej got ahold of some restraining order language, and pasted it into e-mails he sent to anyone who rubbed him the wrong way. The order actually said you weren't allowed to rub him the wrong way, or bump into, or brush up against…
"This CEASE AND DESIST ORDER demands that you immediately discontinue
and do not at any point in the future under any circumstances do the
following to me, the IHA anybody affiliated with the IHA, employees or
family members: speak to, contact, pursue, harass, attack, strike, bump
into, brush up against, push, tap, grab, hold, threaten, telephone (via
cellular or landline), instant message, page, fax, email, follow,
stalk, shadow, disturb their peace, keep under surveillance, gather
information about and/or block my movements at home, work, social
gatherings, religious functions and/or at any business activities."
It made me think.  It made me think hard.  Why did Kolodziej have a restraining order lying around?  A restraining order against stalking behaviour, no less?  And why did he think the stalking laws applied to removing the IHA web site from the server?

Kolodziej was full of irony.  Even while under indictment and facing a prison term, he liked to use the threat of lawsuits when people turned on him.  He called the Petoskey News-Review in late September, to complain about inaccuracies in a story about him.  A story called "Ex-hockey general manager pleads to felony."  Wouldn't want to say anything there that might harm your reputation.  Traverse City rink owners learned of the plea, and put on hold plans to have an IHA team there.  Kolodziej threatened to sue. He said his "personal issues have nothing to do with the product presented on the ice."  Where I'm from, defrauding a partner in a hockey team might actually be considered a "business issue" as well.

I could be wrong. Kolodziej always said there would be legal action. Maybe he meant the legal action against him. He was charged with using a forged Power of Attorney to obtain a credit card in his partner's name (alleging that his partner was dying of cancer, and, what, had a dying wish of seeing Joe's hunting hobby properly financed?). Kolodziej racked up over $13,000 in charges.  Not even subtle.

http://www.state.mi.us/mdoc/asp/ProfileImage.asp?mdocNumber=219040
Click here for Joe's newest web site... courtesy of Michigan State Corrections...
 On November 1, he was sentenced in Michigan’s Emmet County Circuit Court to between 42 months to 14 years in prison.  And that was going easy on him.  By saving the taxpayers money on his trial, Kolodziej was relieved of additional sentencing as an habitual offender. The Petoskey News-Review says that Judge Charles W. Johnson just about doubled the minimum sentence required.  Seems having already served almost four years as a guest of the state of Michigan for a similar crime less than ten years ago should have taught Kolodziej a lesson.  Or the conviction for auto theft in Florida in 1993.  Or the grand larceny conviction in Erie County in 1988.  Or that one night in the holding center in Buffalo that seemed to tick him off so badly.  It really makes you wonder how cocky Joseph Raymond Kolodziej, or Joseph Raymone Kolodziej, or Joseph Raymond Kilodziej, or Joseph Robert Kolodzieu, or Joseph R. Celli, or J.R. Kolodzeij, or Joseph R. Kolodzeij, or Joe Smith, is going to be as Prisoner Number 1638569L.


Here's another game you can play!  Go back through the article and see if you can find these twenty characteristics of a sociopath!

1. Glibness/superficial charm.
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth.
3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
4. Pathological lying
5. Conning/manipulative
6. Lack of remorse or guilt
7. Shallow affect
8. Callous/lack of empathy
9. Parasitic lifestyle
  10. Poor behavioral controls
  11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
  12. Early behavior problems
  13. Lack of realistic, long-term plans
  14. Impulsivity
  15. Irresponsibility
  16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
  17. Many short-term marital relationships
  18. Juvenile delinquency
  19. Revocation of conditional release
  20. Criminal versatility (Hare, 1986)

from http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/psychopath.html






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