Tag Archive: Crime

  1. East Haven Police Chief resigns

    Leave a Comment

    East Haven Police Department Chief Leonard Gallo announced his resignation, effective last Friday, at a Monday morning press conference at East Haven Town Hall.

    Gallo has come under scrutiny since agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested four of his officers on Tuesday for systematic mistreatment of Latino residents. The officers were indicted on several counts of excessive force, false arrest and conspiracy against rights — that conspiracy, the indictment said, included a “Co-conspirator 1” who impeded investigation into the misconduct and helped create a “climate of fear” in the local community. Fred Bow, the chairman of the East Haven Board of Police Commissioners, identified Gallo as “Co-conspirator 1.”

    Gallo’s resignation comes even as calls intensify for East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. to step down. Three members of the Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission met with Maturo Monday morning and urged him to resign, according to the Hartford Courant.

    “The Latino community feels [Maturo and Gallo] are not fit to be our stewards, so to speak,” commission member Isaias Diaz said.

    As of Monday morning, over 15,000 people had signed an online petition telling Gallo to resign from his post.

  2. Esserman asks three assistant chiefs to exit

    Leave a Comment

    Two months after taking over as New Haven Police Department Chief, Dean Esserman announced his intention to restructure the department’s leadership Friday evening.

    Esserman said he had informed his three remaining assistant chiefs — Petesia Adger, Tobin Hensgen and Patrick Redding — over the past few weeks that he planned to appoint his own leadership team. Adger, Hensgen and Redding — along with John Velleca, a former assistant chief who retired last month — were appointed less than a year ago by then-NHPD Chief Frank Limon, and together have served over 60 years at the NHPD.

    “I am moving the Department in a new direction and have taken these past two months to assess the organization,” Esserman said in a Friday press release. “Over the last several weeks, I have met with the assistant chiefs to let them know that I’d like to put my own team together and that I will honor and respect their service to the City of New Haven in developing a time frame for the transition”.

    While Esserman said he would let the assistant chiefs announce their own decisions about if and whether they would department, adding he he would not bring “anyone from New York or Providence.” Esserman previously served as chief of the Providence Police Department.

    Redding signaled he would retire on Thursday, according to the New Haven Register, but neither Hensgen nor Adger could be reached for comment.

    NHPD Spokesman David Hartman deferred comment on the leadership restructuring to the chief’s office, but said that the announcement of any new assistant chiefs would come from Mayor John DeStefano Jr. City Hall spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton ’04 explained it is the “right” of the police chief to choose his assistant chiefs.

    CLARIFICATION: An earlier headline incorrectly asserted that Esserman had “fired” the three assistant chiefs. Rather, he asked the assistant chiefs to retire so that he could structure his own leadership team.

  3. YPD introduces new SMS tip system

    Leave a Comment

     

    Yale Police Department Chief Ronnell Higgins tweeted Wednesday to introduce YaleTip, a new anonymous mobile text tipoff system.

    The new service — available by texting yaletip and a message to the YPD to 67283 — processes messages through a third-party, thereby protecting the identity of tipsters, YPD Assistant Chief Steven Woznyk explained in a Wednesday email to the News. With the new system, open to all members of the Yale and New Haven community, the YPD hopes to get more information to assist in its investigations of dangerous or criminal activity. With services where one can receive sms, one could get the things they want to convey easily.

    “These types of technological advances assist law enforcement agencies as well as make it easier for community members to provide information to police that may assist in various investigations,” Woznyk said. “Like Bulldog Mobile, we wanted to keep up with various technological advances to better serve the community.”

    If the YPD requires more information, all correspondence is routed through the third-party vendor to protect informants’ identities.

     

  4. Cheshire defendant denied new trial

    Leave a Comment

    Joshua Komisarjevsky, who was found guilty last October of the infamous 2007 Cheshire murders, had his request for retrial denied.

    New Haven Supreme Court Judge Jon Blue said he denied the request because the jury came to its decision fairly and without bias, though Komisarjevsky argued that the presence of the victims’ family at the proceedings influenced the jury.

    “Under these circumstances, I just don’t think it’s fair to say that the jury was influenced by outside pressures or anything like that,” Blue said. “Under these circumstances, I believe the trial was perfectly fair and a new trial should not be granted.”

    Komisarjevsky will be formally sentenced next week.

    [via AP.]

  5. Columbia drug dealers face varying sentences

    Leave a Comment

    Just over a year after five Columbia students were busted for running a drug ring out of the school’s dorms and fraternities, the last of the five has pleaded guilty, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

    Starting in July 2010, an undercover police officer purchased over $11,000 in drugs from the students over a five-month period in a sting operation called “Operation Ivy League.” All five plead guilty and received sentences of varying severity. One, convicted of dealing cocaine, spent six months in jail; another, accused of selling Adderall, will be allowed to plea to a drug misdemeanor in a year if he completes 300 hours of community service.

    Adam Klein, the last of the students to plead guilty, is expected to receive five years of probation at sentencing on Feb. 28.

    [via HuffPo.]

  6. Christmas Eve shooting becomes 34th homicide

    Leave a Comment

    A man shot late Saturday night died in the hospital this morning, bringing New Haven’s 2011 homicide count to 34.

    Around 8:45 p.m. Saturday, the New Haven Police Department’s Shotspotter system reported several gunshots at 332 Norton St. Officers responded and found Antonio Holloway, 19, with a gunshot wound to the chest outside 335 Norton St, NHPD spokesman David Hartman said. Holloway was taken to St. Raphael’s Hospital and pronounced dead at 3:51 a.m. The NHPD has launched an investigation into Holloway’s death.

    Holloway graduated from Hillhouse High School earlier this year, and had received a suit and letter of recommendation from the school’s principal, Kermit Carolina, on Thursday, the New Haven Independent reported. Holloway was awaiting disposition on Jan. 24, 2012 for a sealed criminal case.

    Christmas Eve also saw another shooting: 51-year-old Darrel Johnson initially told officers he had been shot in a robbery attempt at 166 Thompson St. He later admitted he shot himself in the leg while in the bathroom.

  7. Murder on Houston Street marks 33rd homicide

    Leave a Comment

    The Elm City saw its 33rd homicide Friday morning.

    New Haven Police Department officers responded to a report of a shooting at 50 Houston St. around 12:50 a.m. There they found 27-year-old Joseph Zargo of West Haven with a gunshot wound to the chest. Zargo was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead shortly afterward, NHPD spokesman David Hartman said.

    Zargo was not the only shooting victim that evening. Hamden resident Christopher Duncan, 26, was shot around Wilson and Rosette Streets and walked into Yale-New Haven Hospital at approximately 11:30 p.m. Thursday night. Duncan was taken to the operating room with several wounds to the torso and remains at the hospital in a critical condition, Hartman said.

    Friday morning’s homicide brings the Elm City’s yearly count to 33 — nine more than last year and the highest figure recorded since 1991, when 34 people were murdered.

  8. Violent crime falls in first half of 2011

    Leave a Comment

    Violent crime in New Haven dropped by 11 percent in the first six months of 2011, compared to the same time in 2010, according to data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

    That data comes as part of the FBI’s preliminary analysis of countrywide crime statistics from Jan. 1 to June 30, which counted homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults as violent crimes. Nationwide, violent crime fell 6.4 percent.

    While the number of robberies rose from 338 to 350, the number of rapes dropped from 30 to 25 and aggravated assault cases fell from 585 to 460. Property crime in New Haven also fell 11 percent.

    Despite the positive results, New Haven’s per capita crime rate remains the highest in Connecticut, above that of Hartford, Bridgeport, Stamford and Waterbury, which were also included in the FBI’s analysis.

    The city has seen 32 homicides so far this year — eight more than last year and the highest figure recorded since 1991.

  9. East Haven police biased against Latinos, Feds find

    Leave a Comment

    Investigators from the U.S. Justice Department say that East Haven police have discriminated against Latino residents, the Associated Press reported Monday.

    Between one third and one half of drivers pulled over by certain East Haven police officers in 2009 and 2010 were Latino, the investigators found, while Latinos make up only about 10 percent of the area’s population. They also discovered that Latinos faced harsher punishments for minor violations than did non-Latinos, and that at least once an officer looked up a moving car’s insurance information to find a reason to stop it.

    “No matter how we looked at it, we found problems,” said Roy Austin Jr., deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division. He said certain police squads pulled over an “extraordinarily high” number of Latinos.

    The investigation started in September 2009, when Latinos in East Haven claimed they were being unfairly targeted by police. Austin said he and other Justice Department officials were confronted by a “blue wall of silence” from the police department and attempts to interfere with witnesses — for example, he said Police Chief Leonard Gallo told staff that he would be able to learn the names of people who cooperated with investigators.

    Austin said he saw a “deliberate indifference” to fixing the problem among East Haven police, but he added that the Justice Department will reach out to police and local officials to push for reform. The FBI is conducting a separate investigation that could lead to criminal charges for individual officers.

    Gallo was recently reinstated as police chief by East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo, who took office last month. Gallo had been on paid administrative leave since last year, when the Justice Department issued a preliminary report of its investigation.

  10. Man murdered in East Rock

    2 Comments

    New Haven saw its 29th homicide of the year Friday afternoon in East Rock.

    Two cars were approaching each other from opposite directions on Edwards Street when one pulled in front of the other, according to New Haven Police Department spokesman David Hartman. Occupants of each car got out and a fight ensued, during which one occupant shot another, Hartman said, before the cars drove off without the victim, a black male in his early 20s.

    The New Haven Police received reports of a shooting at 3:40 p.m. and responded, finding a male who had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. The victim, whose name is not being released pending family notification, was rushed to Yale-New Haven Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

    Hartman said the investigation is in its preliminary stages, with detectives following any possible leads. A forensics team was on the scene an hour after the homicide.

    Although overall crime is down by about 9 percent this year, homicides are set for their highest rate in decades. This death is the city’s 29th in 2011, the highest number of homicides since 1994, which saw 32.

    Check back for updates throughout the weekend.

  11. DeStefano picks new police chief

    3 Comments

    Dean Esserman is the New Haven Police Department’s new chief.

    Mayor John DeStefano Jr. announced at a Tuesday press conference that Esserman, a former NHPD Assistant Chief in the 1990s and most recently the chief of the Providence Police Department, will lead the NHPD after Frank Limon’s departure Nov. 15. The mayor’s announcement comes just a day after he confirmed Limon’s exit. and follows a weekend of speculation that the previous chief was on the way out.

    “My job as mayor is pretty straightforward….to recruit the best people to the task,” DeStefano said. “The decision to hire Esserman made itself.”

    Esserman, the department’s fourth chief in four years, will take the helm of the NHPD from Nov. 16 under a contract that runs through Feb. 1, 2014. He served as an assistant chief under Chief Nicholas Pastore from 1991-93 and headed the police department in Providence, R.I. until June, when he stepped down after controversy erupted following reports of underage drinking at his daughter’s graduation party.

    DeStefano said he selected Esserman after two weeks of discussions with Limon about the chief’s resignation and replacement, adding he has been in contact with Esserman for “one or two months.”

    “Thank you for bringing me home,” Esserman said at the conference. “My marching orders are firm: address the violence and connect to the community.”

    Esserman returns to the NHPD during a year in which homicides are at their highest rate since 1994 — the murder count for the year sits at 27. Still, New Haven’s overall crime rate is down 9 percent over the past year, and Esserman is no stranger to cracking down on the city’s crime. He was the architect of New Haven’s community policing model, a strategy he replicated in both Stamford and Providence, DeStefano said.

    In Providence, Esserman cleaned up a “scandal-ridden department” and pushed for community policing initiatives to reduce crime and improve the quality of life in the city, according to a report in the Providence Journal. His focus on community policing comes at an opportune time for the Elm City. The department announced a new strategy of foot and bike patrols Oct. 6, one which DeStefano said would improve police-community relations and reduce the incidence of crime.

    “Good cops know their community and the community knows them,” Esserman said. “You get a lower homicide rate a couple of ways….[one is] by having relationships with the community.”

    Esserman’s appointment did not come as a total surprise to those in the Elm City’s police establishment.

    One “knowledgeable source” told the New Haven Independent Esserman would get the top spot Sunday, while NHPD Union President Arpad Tolnay told the News Monday that Esserman’s name was the only one he had heard discussion of to replace Limon.

    Tolnay said while he did not personally know Esserman, he looked forward to the new chief working with the union.

    Until Esserman arrives, NHPD Assistant Chief John Vellaca will serve as the department’s acting chief.