CT EnCon Police
Eastern District Highlights
February 2018

Missing Snowmobiler Recovered
On February 13th, 2018, with warming temperatures and thinning ice, an individual believed they observed what appeared to be part of a body floating in Pachaug Pond, Griswold, off the state boat launch and in the proximity of where a 57 year old Griswold male’s snowmobile was found in December 2017 and no recovery of the subject was made, despite several attempts by first responders and police dive teams. Officers Williams, Tavares and Sgt. Kane responded to the launch, while a private drone operated by a fire department member confirmed the presence of a body. Griswold and Jewett City Fire Department personnel recovered the body of a male later confirmed to be the missing snowmobiler, John Dubois. Final investigation results are pending the state Medical Examiner’s final report.
Trapping Incidents
On 2/10/18, Officer Pettus responded to Enfield on a complaint of a fox possibly caught in a snare. Upon arrival to the suburban area, she received further details and photos of a fox with an apparent conibear trap around its mouth. Officer Pettus observed the animal with the trap nearby, but the animal was too mobile to capture or attempt to safely euthanize. A male was soon observed in the immediate area carrying a sack toward the brook where the fox had been seen; the 64 year old male lived nearby, and had set several similar traps on trees and out of the water (unpadded traps should be set in water). He was missing one of his traps on a tree set. He further stated he had been trapping the area for two years, primarily for raccoons, had a license but no written landowner permission. The subject received a summons for illegal trap set and trapping without written permission, and removed all his traps.
While investigating a trapping complaint in Windham on 2/24/18, Officers Danielson and Vroman located the 64 year old complainant and a 42 year old male who was allegedly harassing the complainant who also had a valid arrest warrant for motor vehicle violations in Norwich. The younger male received a warning for the trapping incident, and was held by EnCon Police until Norwich police took him into custody on the warrant charges.
Public Safety Incidents
On the afternoon of 2/16/18, Officers Scatena and Landry responded to Bigelow Hollow State Park, Union, for a report of two people seen walking onto the ice with coolers then they were no longer visible; a vehicle was nearby. Following further reports of a potential missing subject from New Britain, the male vehicle owner and male companion were located safely ice fishing with no other issues / violations found.
On 2/20/18, Officers Tavares and Williams responded to a trail in Pachaug State Forest, Griswold, for a 55 year old male walking around partially clothed and exhibiting signs of emotional disturbance. A family member on scene indicated the male had prior suicidal thoughts and recent health issues. The subject was taken to Backus Hospital for an emergency health examination.
Recreation / Other Enforcement Activity
EnCon Police Officer Tefft received an anonymous complaint on 2/3/18 of a white male with a red beard hunting with a high caliber rifle in Pachaug State Forest, Voluntown. The compainant provided a vehicle registration owned by a 57 year old Groton resident. On 2/11/18, Officer Tefft met the suspect, who expected the officer’s visit. He gave a statement that he was hunting with a .270 caliber rifle for coyotes in Pachaug on 2/3/18, did not have a 2018 hunting license, and wore only an orange hat while hunting. He also indicated during the interview that he had taken a coyote in 2017 but had not reported it nor had it tagged per regulations – the pelt was seized and a warning for this violation issued. The subject was also cited for hunting on 2/3/18 without a license, and warned for the orange and weapon violations.
On February 16th, Officer Landry found two vehicles parked together in a pulloff in Bigelow Hollow State Park after sunset. Upon approach, a male and female exited the vehicle; the male from Wallingford was cited for being in the park after hours. The female’s vehicle, a 1995 Ford Thunderbird, was actually registered to a minivan. The subject stated she had just registered the vehicle but could not provide proper paperwork; she then admitted to having a suspended driver’s license as well as an unregistered vehicle, and received a summons for these violations. The two parties stated they had met on a website and used Bigelow Hollow for a mid-way meeting point.
Later on 2/16/18, Officer Landry found two males and two females in Meshomasic State Forest, Glastonbury after hours and issued citations. On February 28th Officer Danielson responded to Hebron for a report of two vehicles stuck in the mud, and cited the same two males Officer Landry found on 2/16, this time for simple trespass.
On February 20th, 2018, Officer Curran found a concrete and asphalt debris pile on Franklin WMA property; he received information from a local public works employee on the vehicle that dumped the materials, including a photograph. The vehicle’s registered owner admitted to the dumping, cleaned up the debris, and was issued a $300 fine.

Public Outreach
Eastern District officers worked with the Boating Division at the Connecticut Marine Trades Association Hartford Boat Show February 9th-11th, interacting with numerous boaters and marine vendors.
CT State EnCon Police
Marine District Highlights
February 2018

TRAINING
EnCon Officer Blackwell attended a month long Marine Law Enforcement Training Program in Glynco Georgia put on by the Department of Homeland Security Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). This very intensive training consisted of nautical terminology, marlinspike seamanship, safety and emergency equipment, navigation rules, heavy weather operations, officer survival afloat, aids to navigation, vessel handling, pursuit, stop and approach, emergency procedures, boarding procedures, chart interpretation, piloting and dead reckoning, vessel intercepts, environmental stress, trailering, communications, preventative maintenance and electronic navigation. Several CT EnCon Officers have attended this valuable training over the past years. It has not only been a highlight of their careers but they have been able to put the training to good use conducting recreational and commercial fishing enforcement, boating safety enforcement and search and rescue missions.
COMMERCIAL FISHING ENFORCEMENT
On February 15th, 2018 Sergeant Stone was conducting shellfish enforcement, specifically commercial oyster harvesting on the Housatonic River in Stratford. The Housatonic River is classified as Prohibited by the Department of Agriculture. Only commercial shell fishing license holders with a Long-Term Shellfish Transplant Relay License can harvest oysters from the Housatonic River. The classification of Prohibited means that oysters harvested from the Housatonic River must be relayed to cleaner water for a period of at least six months prior to be harvested for market. The Department of Agriculture has determined the six-month period in cleaner waters is required to mitigate the levels of bacteria and viruses found in oysters from prohibited areas, obvious health and safety issues. The license also requires the harvester to call into DEEP Dispatch notifying their start time, location and expected end time. All commercial vessels conducting oyster harvest in the Housatonic River are also required to have a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) on board for tracking purposes.
On this day, Sergeant Stone called into DEEP Dispatch to inquire who had called in to verify they were conducting a relay. Sergeant Stone obtained said information and realized that one vessel had not called in of which he could see was actively harvesting oysters from the river. Through training and experience Sergeant Stone realized that commercial shell fishermen will sometimes not call in their relays in hopes of marketing legal sized oysters of which they will either land or take directly to market, or relay to a bed not on their relay license to avoid detection and get to market prior to the six-month depuration period. Upon verification of the commercial shell fisherman’s license and VMS track for the day, Sergeant Stone was able to determine that said commercial shell fisherman relayed the harvested oysters from the Housatonic River to a shellfish bed in Milford. The commercial shell fisherman could only relay to beds he had permission to of which were in Westport and Stratford. Sergeant Stone contacted DEEP Dispatch who related that the vessel in question had just phoned in the relay, almost an hour after they started and related they would be relaying their oysters to their licensed shellfish bed in Westport. Sergeant Stone watched the vessel on VMS and tracked it from the shellfish bed in Milford to its homeport in Bridgeport. Sergeant Stone then met the vessel captain and license holder and inquired about the relay. Sergeant Stone was able to match the VMS track with the vessel’s GPS track for the day. When questioned, the commercial shell fisherman related there must have been an error from the Department of Agriculture. Sergeant Stone issued said commercial shell fisherman a Misdemeanor Summons for violation of his shellfish license. The Department of Agriculture was notified and shut down the shellfish bed in Milford of which 80 bushels of oysters were illegally relayed to that day for six months.
On February 19th, 2018 Officer Bruno and Sergeant Chemacki received information from Rhode Island Environmental Police that a commercial fisherman out of New London had landed 2048 pounds of summer flounder in Point Judith Rhode Island. The legal amount of summer flounder to be landed in Rhode Island is 1500 pounds per biweekly period. It was also related from Rhode Island Environmental Police that said commercial fisherman had offloaded summer flounder in excess of the creel limit during the previous biweekly. Officer Bruno and Sergeant Chemacki were familiar with the commercial fisherman who has had previous violations for excess creel limits and where he would be coming into port in New London and advised Rhode Island to start making their way to Connecticut. Within a short period of time Officer Bruno and Sergeant Chemacki were able to locate the commercial fishermen at the dock in New London when he returned and notified Rhode Island Environmental Police of their location. The commercial fisherman was issued a Misdemeanor Summons from Rhode Island Environmental Police for excessive creel limit of summer flounder.
TRAPPING ENFORCEMENT
On February 20th, 2018 Officer Bruno received information regarding illegal trapping in the town of Niantic concerning an injured coyote caught in a leghold trap near a highly residential area. Upon arrival Officer Bruno observed the severely injured coyote, exhausted and barely breathing. Officer Bruno also determined that the trap was an illegal land set leg hold trap of which the season ended on January 1st, 2018. Due to the coyote’s poor condition Officer Bruno had to euthanize it. Officer Bruno met the complainant who related she has seen traps hanging in her neighbor’s yard. Officer Bruno contacted the neighbor of which he has had contact before on a complaint of a coyote that was found with a leg hold trap attached to it with said individuals name on it. The accused initially stated he only had a deer camera in the area but after persistent questioning from Officer Bruno, changed his story and admitted to having one raccoon trap in the area. The accused took Officer Bruno to the trap of which was not properly labeled. The trap was then deactivated. The accused again denied he had any more traps but shortly thereafter admitted he had another trap set consisting of an unlabeled Hav-A-Hart trap. The accused was again deceptive of having any more traps until Officer Bruno began making his way towards the leg hold trap with the coyote. At this time the accused admitted to setting the illegal trap and showed Officer Bruno yet another illegal trap of which a Duke Bridger 1.75 unpadded leg was hold trap found hidden under the leaves on the ground. In total there were four illegally set traps, three of which were unlabeled. Further investigation found that the accused did not have written permission to trap the land and did not even possess a 2018 trapping license or land trapping license. The accused was charged with illegal trap sets, failure to label traps, trapping without written permission from the landowner and trapping without a license.


CT State EnCon Police
West district Highlights
February 2018

HUNTING ENFORCEMENT

On 2/12/18 Officer Johnston took a Meriden man into custody at CSP Troop I on a warrant for Criminal Trespass, 3rd Degree (2 counts), Interfering with an Officer, Hunting on Private Land Without Permission of the Owner of Such Land (2 counts), and Failure to Wear Four-Hundred Square Inches of Orange While Hunting (2 counts). The arrest stems for a lengthy investigation that started when Officer Johnston went out for a foot patrol at Giuffrida Park in Meriden on 11/23/17, Thanksgiving, and discovered numerous items that indicated that illegal hunting was taking place. On 2/8/18 when officers went to interview the suspect he made statements that misled officers. The investigation is still active and suspects are still being sought.

On 02/21/18 Off. Heath received a call for service regarding a rifle that was found on the side of a popular walking trail in the Peoples state forest. Upon arrival, a thorough check of the area was performed with negative results. The following day this same officer received information from an individual who stated they had seen a man earlier the prior day walking with a rifle across his back and not wearing safety orange, in the same area as the prior day’s complaint. The witness was able to provide this officer with a picture of the suspect along with his vehicle. This officer along with another Northwest officer went to the suspects address and obtained a full admission of guilt of the prior day’s incident. Charges are pending for the following: "Reckless Endangerment", "Hunting without 400" of safety orange", Negligent Hunting 4th" and "Weapons in a motor vehicle".

On 02/24/18 Officer Yescott responded to a complaint of illegal hunting in Burlington. Officer Yescott was able to locate the suspects quickly. This was due to his extensive knowledge of the area. Two males were found trespassing and illegally hunting coyote on the New Britain Reservoir Co. property. Both males were interviewed and admitted to setting up and calling two coyotes into their set. They stated they missed both coyotes and were using Savage .17s. They stated that they believed they were on Nassahegan State Forest property. Both males were issued infractions for Simple Trespass.

K-9 CALLS FOR SERVICE

During the month of February Officer Flockhart and K-9 Ellie responded to a possible Search & Rescue (SAR) for a suicide male at People’s State Forest, and the individual was ultimately located in New Britain. They also took part in the “No Child Left Inside” Public Outreach event at Burr Pond State Park.