MARINE DISTRICT

HUNTING ARRESTS

On December 3, 2011, Officer Monday was checking legal hunting activity on private land in Westbrook when he and the legal parties observed three males in camouflage without any orange clothing, each with a rifle or shotgun, walking through the adjacent property that only the legal parties had permission to hunt. After a brief foot chase and an attempt by one male to hide his rifle, Officer Monday detained all three subjects, and with further assistance from officers Chemacki, Stone and Sgt. Lundin, it was further determined two subjects had no deer hunting permits at all, none had any required orange clothing, and all were carrying loaded firearms less than three hundred feet from an occupied home. One subject also had an empty pistol holster on his waist, and after a search of nearby woods the weapon in question was located at a friend’s house. All face multiple charges for illegal deer hunting, trespassing, hunting safety and loaded weapon charges in Middletown superior court; all three firearms were seized.

On December 6, 2011, Officer Stanko received an active complaint of an illegal hunter without any orange clothing trespassing on private property in Clinton. Officers Stanko, Samorajczyk and Sgt. Lundin responded to the area, and a motor vehicle stop was made on the suspect vehicle on speedy information from the complainant. The lone male occupant initially admitted to being in the area of the complaint to get some soup from his mother’s house, but upon further questioning as to why his camouflage pants were wet he confessed to illegally hunting the property in question and fleeing upon confrontation by the legal hunter. He also had a loaded .22 long rifle in his vehicle, which was seized. He was arrested for trespassing, hunting safety and the loaded weapon charges.

Officer Stanko was patrolling a private wooded area in Old Saybrook on December 8, 2011 when he encountered 33 year old male wearing camouflage clothing, hunting with a .30 caliber rifle. The subject was also in possession of a deer grunt tube and deer scent bottles, and initially stated he was coyote hunting. As the rifle / shotgun deer season had ended on 12/6, he was arrested for hunting out of season, insufficient orange clothing and failure to carry his hunting license.

On December 10, 2011, Officers Samorajczyk and Stanko checked a male hunter in a tree stand on property adjacent to Interstate 95 in Westbrook. The hunter had both a .308 caliber rifle and a .22 caliber rifle in the stand, and a muzzleloader weapon without a working breech on the ground below him. This was during the open muzzleloader deer season, and although the subject had proper written permission he believed the area was greater than ten (10) acres, allowing use of the large-caliber deer hunting rifle; a check of town property records found the area to be just over eight(8) acres. The subject was arrested for hunting with the rifle on less than the required ten acres, hunting without required orange clothing, and hunting with a rifle during muzzleloader season. His deer rifle was seized pending his appearance in Middletown court.

On December 27, 2011, Officer Stone while off duty in Old Saybrook and heard a loud gunshot from adjacent land where he believed hunting was not allowed by the landowner. Upon checking the area he found a father and son with muzzleloaders with a recently taken doe, with no kill tags for the deer with them at all. Both subjects had valid permission to hunt the property but neither had valid permits for hunting with muzzleloaders. Officer Reilly and Sgt. Lundin arrived to assist, and Officer Reilly cited the two for illegal deer hunting and taking a deer without proper tags.


MARINE FISHERIES ENFORCEMENT

On December 2, 2011, Officer Reilly and Sgt. Lundin joined the US Coast Guard for a joint patrol of Long Island Sound from New Haven through Branford. Over thirty recreational fishermen were checked, and three violations were issued for taking undersized blackfish, blackfish over the creel limit, and fishing without a license. Later in the month Central Marine sector officers checked local seafood dealers, lobster markets and stores selling lobsters for the holidays, resulting in several warnings for possession of undersized lobsters.

SHELLFISHING/ LARCENY ARREST

Following previous complaints of illegal shellfishing in the Guilford / Branford area, on December 14, 2011, Officer Samorajczyk received an active complaint of vessels owned by Mid-Sound Fisheries taking clams from the complainant’s shellfish bed in Long Island Sound, Guilford. Officers Chemacki and Samorajczyk responded by vessel and were able to board one vessel operated by company owner Nicholas Crismale while he was actively taking clams from the leased lot of the complainant. Crismale was over one quarter mile away from his nearest leased lots, and had twenty-nine bushels of clams aboard his vessel. He was arrested for larceny and two counts of shellfish license violations and was released to appear in New Haven superior court; the clams were seized and returned to the waters from which taken. The second vessel’s captain was found to be actively shellfishing on permitted but unmarked grounds, and was cited for this violation by Officer Chemacki.

MOTOR VEHICLE/ CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

Officers Monday, Chemacki and Ruggiero responded before sunrise on December 24, 2011 to a report of a smashed entrance gate at Hammonasset Beach State Park, Madison. Upon arrival they found the large entrance steel beam girder gate smashed, bent and stripped out of the ground, and a vehicle over one hundred feet beyond against a tree with no one around. Investigation revealed the 63 year old lone male operator had crashed the vehicle sometime after midnight and walked back to his Guilford home. He was arrested for evading responsibility / reporting the accident, and criminal mischief third degree.

BOATING ACCIDENT

On December 16, 2011 DEEP EnCon Police responded to a report of a small unmanned vessel on the Niantic River in the Town of Waterford. An unresponsive male was also pulled from the river a short distance from the vessel and transported to the Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London. The victim was pronounced deceased several hours later. EnCon Police Officer Persico began conducting the boating accident investigation and secured the vessel. It was determined that the victim was by himself and that there were no witnesses to the accident. The accident investigation is ongoing at this time.

DAMAGE TO HISTORICAL BATTLEFIELD

On December 16, 2011 an anonymous complaint was received by DEEP Park Supervisor Jon Lincoln that persons were possibly illegally digging at a historical site near Fort Griswold State Battlefield in the Town of Groton. DEEP EnCon Sgt. Kane and Officer Bouthillier met at the site with Supervisor Lincoln and Dan Forrest, from the State Historic Preservation Office, to inspect the site. It was determined that the site was state property and did have historical significance. EnCon Officer Bouthillier followed up with gathering statements from witnesses to identify a possible suspect and photographed the area to document the disturbance to the site. The incident was referred to the State Attorney General’s Office for possible civil action.



WESTERN DISTRICT


EXOTIC ANIMAL

On December 2, 2011, EnCon Police responded to a report of a deceased alligator in New Fairfield. A girl had been walking in the woods behind her home and came upon a pond. The girl noticed something floating in the pond that looked like an alligator. She managed to move it to shore with a large stick and notified her father who contacted the EnCon Police. It was determined that it was in fact a deceased alligator, two feet in length. As this species is not native to Connecticut, the owner or person responsible for releasing the alligator could not be determined.

HUNTING ARRESTS

On December 11, 2011, EnCon Police Officers Erin Crossman, Nick Miofsky and Tim Hill responded to a request for assistance by the MDC Police in West Hartland.

The MDC officer had stopped a suspicious male exiting MDC property getting into a pick - up truck on Highway 181 in West Hartland, CT. The male was wearing camouflage and had hunting gear in his possession. EnCon Police officers determined that the subject had been dropped off earlier that day to hunt on the MDC property. He admitted to shooting a buck and a doe. EnCon officers seized the two deer along with the subject firearm and charged him with Hunting on Sunday, Criminal Trespass, Negligent Hunting 3rd degree and two counts of Illegal possession of deer.


On December 21, 2011, EnCon Police Officer Ralph Concepcion responded to a complaint of two hunters that were at the Naugatuck State Forest (Quillinan Reservoir Block) in Ansonia in an area designated as a Deer Bow Hunting only area. The complainant stated that the hunters had shot a deer with a firearm, possible a muzzleloader. Officer Concepcion located the two hunters who had exited the forest and were at their vehicle which was parked next to a sign indicating that the area was limited to bow hunting only. When questioned, both subjects stated that they did not see the sign. The hunters had shot a deer with a muzzleloader on the bow hunting only area which was seized by Officer Concepcion. Both subjects were arrested and charged with Deer hunting with an invalid permit. The subject who shot the deer failed to tag it in accordance with the regulation and was charged with Failure to tag.

VIDEO HUNTING ARREST

On December 28, 2011 EnCon Police Officer Ed Yescott arrested a New Hartford resident on charges related to a deer hunting violation. The violation came to the attention of EnCon Police officers after a video was located on the internet site YouTube showing the subject killing a white tail deer. EnCon Police officers were able to gather evidence and determine that the alleged violation occurred on property owned by the subject in New Hartford on or about December 26th. Officers determined that the subject had a hunting license and the required deer hunting permits but failed to report the deer kill to DEEP within 24 hours as required by state regulations.

When Officers Yescott, Hill and Miofsky contacted the subject and advised him that the video had been downloaded by EnCon Police, the subject admitted to the violation and voluntarily turned over all the meat from the deer which had been butchered along with the deer’s head and 9 point rack (antlers).

The subject was charged with Failure to Report a deer kill within 24 hours. The investigation is ongoing.



EASTERN DISTRICT



BURGLARY SUSPECTS APPREHENDED
On December 23, 2011, The State Police were actively seeking several people who were seen going through several back yards in Haddam stealing metal. Officer Ruggiero responded along with State Police units but was not able to locate the suspects. A couple hours later State Police received additional information that the same suspects were seen burglarizing a residence in Durham. A vehicle description and plate were given to area officers. Officer Ruggiero was departing Higganum Reservoir when a vehicle matching the description passed him. Officer Ruggiero ran the license plate and confirmed that this was the suspect vehicle. The vehicle was stopped by Officer Ruggiero and the occupants detained for the State Police. The two subjects were taken into custody and charged by State Police. Matthew J. Mosher, 26, of Haddam, and Nicholas Waite, 20, of Higganum, are charged with third degree burglary and sixth degree larceny. Items stolen from the home were recovered. Mosher and Waite are due in court in January 2012.


HUNTING
On Sunday, December 4th, 2011 Officer Stone received a complaint that a man in an apartment complex in Ashford was shooting squirrels with a pellet rifle. Upon arrival Officer Stone made contact with the man and after a short interview the man admitted that he had been taking squirrels and knew it was illegal to do so on Sunday. The man also admitted to not having a current hunting license and was arrested for those charges. He was released on a Promise to Appear in court at a future date.


On Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 Officer J. Williams was on patrol and received a complaint of a man that had illegally shot a deer with a crossbow over bait. Upon arrival to the scene in Chaplin, Officers Williams and Pettus interviewed the suspect, a man well known to EnCon Law Enforcement. It was determined that there was an illegal 8 point buck hanging in his shed. The man was arrested for possession of the illegal deer and issued a summons to appear in court at a later date. This particular person was arrested by EnCon Police for a similar incident at the same location in October 2011.


On Friday, December 23, 2011 Officer Pettus received an anonymous tip that a man was hunting with a firearm on UCONN Campus property in Storrs, CT. Upon arrival Officer Pettus found the suspect vehicle and called in Officer Pyznar to watch the vehicle while she attempted to find the suspect. After a short search the suspect was found with a .257 caliber rifle and claimed to be hunting squirrel. He was not wearing the required fluorescent orange clothing, nor did he have permission to be on the property in question. Furthermore, the suspect was found to be a convicted felon. Officers Pettus and Pyznar placed the subject under arrest and transported him to UCONN PD for fingerprints and paperwork. The suspect was given a later court date and released on a $1000.00 dollar non-surety bond. The firearm involved was confiscated by the officers.