State of emergency declared in Bristol

Press release from Mayor Art Ward's assistant, Mary Suchopar:

Mayor Ward has declared a State of Emergency in the city of Bristol as a result of the impending Storm Nemo, a strong Nor’Easter which has been categorized as a major blizzard. Mayor Ward stated, “This storm has the potential for major damage, drifting snow and hazardous road conditions, I ask that residents keep a clear head and use common sense during the storm hours.”

The Emergency Shelter at Chippens Hill Middle School has been opened as of 12:00 pm today. If residents require the need of the shelter, they should bring warm clothes, snacks, any necessary medications and books, games, etc. for entertainment. This shelter is a pet-friendly shelter. If you bring a pet to the shelter, be sure to have appropriate food, carrier, leash, etc.

As of 6:00 pm this evening, the Mayor has requested all non-essential vehicle traffic off the roads in the City for safety reasons and to give the plows an opportunity to keep the roads clear. A parking ban has gone into effect as of 12:00 noon, today and will remain in effect, until further notice.

The Public Transfer Station will not be open this Saturday, February 9th, as well as the Public Libraries.  If you have an emergency, contact the Police Dispatch at 860-584-3011.  

Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Police need 'thorough review,' investigator says

An investigator who’s been looking into problems at the city’s police department has urged officials to conduct a comprehensive management study of the entire force.

In a report completed recently about a detective’s mishandling of weapons seized for evidence, Lori Coppinger says the city “needs a thorough review of departmental policies.”

The report also says the city should “hire a professional company to do a comprehensive management study of the police department in its entirety.”

Mayor Art Ward said Tuesday that “a management study might be a consideration” for the department. Read the whole story.

Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

A deal with DiVenere is nearing completion

The city is trying to work out a settlement with Police Chief John DiVenere, who's on paid administrative leave. You can read Lisa Backus' story here.
My guess is that the chief is gone within a week or two - paid off with a year's pay and a little more - and that the acting chief, Capt. Eric Osanitsch, gets the nod pretty quickly to take the reins. He seems to have the backing of the department and the politicians.
But I don't have a crystal ball.

*****

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Read the Blazejowski report

To understand why Police Chief John DiVenere was suspended today, you really need to read the executive summary of consultant Lori Coppinger's report on the handling of Office Marc Blazejowski, who is out on sick leave.
You can read the PDF of the report here.
*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Bristol officer shoots self by mistake

More from the police... A 25-year-old off-duty Bristol officer managed to shoot himself in the leg on January 6 up in Torrington. Police there haven't named him, but I'm sure we'll know who it was by tomorrow.
He was treated at a couple of hospitals and released so that's good. Hopefully the injury is more to his pride more than anything else.
Accidents do happen, even to the most careful officers, but it certainly doesn't help the department now.
*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Mosback arrested for drunk driving

A former city police officer who totaled his cruiser in a late-night crash in June has turned himself in to state police on drunken driving charges connected to the on-duty wreck,

Robert Mosback, 38, turned himself in to the Hartford barracks Thursday morning, according to state police, who reinvestigated the case at the request of New Britain's state's attorney.

Mosback resigned from the force in September after the city's insurer discovered a hospital laboratory test showed he had been drunk at the time of the accident. He asked for his job back a few weeks later.

City police did not charge Mosback in the case and did not check his blood alcohol level at the scene.

An investigation is underway to determine if any officers erred and whether a coverup occurred.

Mayor Art Ward said the arrest is "evidently as a result of the investigation" by the state's attorney's office in New Britain, which began a month ago after the state police declined to get involved directly.

"They've determined this is the appropriate manner in which to proceed," Ward said.

He said city leaders wanted outside, unimpeded probes into the case and apparently that's what is happening.
"State police investigators conducted numerous interviews, obtained search and seizure warrants from Superior Court to seize evidence and examined all facts and circumstances related to this accident," according to state Police Lt. Paul Vance.

Mosback is due in court in Bristol on Dec. 14. He was released on a $5,000 cash bond.  See the press release here.

*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Police officer suspended for 60 days

A city police officer arrested in Florida last April for allegedly choking his pregnant girlfriend at Disneyworld has agreed to a 60-day suspension from Bristol’s force and to resign if he’s convicted on the charges.
Officer Marc Blazejowski, 33, has been on an extended medical leave since May. He will serve the suspension when he returns to work.
“It’s just not a happy situation,” Mayor Art Ward said Tuesday.
The mayor said he agreed to the deal with Blazejowski and the police union because it seemed better to have a “pretty definitive” agreement rather than face the “legal uncertainty” of trying to act in the wake of the Florida case.
Several city officials said they anticipate the felony charges against Blazejowski will be dropped soon because his former girlfriend doesn’t want to testify. But that could not be confirmed Tuesday with Orange County, Fla. prosecutors or police.
Blazejowski, an 11-year veteran, agreed to the suspension as a way to resolve the internal investigation into the Florida case.
In it, he admits to violating the department’s code of conduct and to conduct unbecoming of an officer.
Blazejowski also agreed to “immediately resign” from the Bristol force if he is “convicted or accepts a plea for any domestic charge arising from the April 13, 2010 incident.”
In addition, Blazejowski, who could not be reached for comment, agreed that if he violates any serious city or department policy work in the future or again acts in a way that is unbecoming of an officer, he will be fired. He won’t even be allowed to appeal. Click here for full story.
*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Police audio from night of Mosback crash

Hey look, I made a video of sorts:

Watch for the story in Saturday's Bristol Press.

*****

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Mosback unlikely to regain his job

It doesn’t look too promising for former Police Officer Robert Mosback’s bid to regain his old job.

“If I were to have to vote today, I would vote to deny it,” said city Councilor Kevin Fuller, who serves on the police panel.

In a move that stunned commissioners, Mosback and his attorney, Theodore Wurz of Plainville, went to the Police Board Tuesday to ask them to ignore his Sept. 30 resignation and to restore him to the force.

"He wishes to rescind that resignation at this point in time," Wurz told commissioners.

Click here for the story.

*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Another Bristol cop under investigation

The Hartford Courant's Don Stacom has this story about a Bristol police officer who has been charged with a felony for allegedly choking his pregnant fiancee at Disney World.
*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Two probes underway of Mosback case (updated)

[Breaking news: Mosback seeks his job back.]
Two investigations are getting underway soon into the handling by city police of an on-duty accident involving an officer who later resigned after records showed he was intoxicated – including a probe of possible criminal misconduct.

“We were looking for a totally objective assessment of the entire situation,” Mayor Art Ward said Tuesday.

The state’s attorney in New Britain, Scott Murphy, will look into the case to determine if anyone committed a crime, according to city officials.

An internal affairs investigation will examine the police department’s handling of former Officer Robert Mosback’s June 26 crash to discern if police rules and regulations were followed and perhaps recommend revisions to department policies.

The parallel investigations will try to determine if Mosback arrived at work drunk and whether anyone knew about it, Police Chief John DiVenere said. He said they will also answer the question hanging over the case: “Was there a cover up?”

The chief, who last month suggested there was one, took a different tack Tuesday.

“I really don’t believe there was any type of cover up,” DiVenere said.

He said the entire case has “hit the department very hard.”

Mosback, the chief said, “was a well-liked officer. Everyone was shocked.”

DiVenere said the case “certainly has taken a toll on morale” in the force.

“We need to get this to get over with as soon as possible,” the chief said.

Officials said they had no idea how long the investigations might take or how much they might cost the city. Click here for the full story.

Here are some links many of the documents in this case:

Click here to see a PDF of the June 26, 2010 accident report.
Click here to see a PDF of the July 19, 2010 report by Capt. Osanitsch.
Click here to see a PDF of an October 19 memo to police from the mayor and police chief.
Click here to see a PDF of Lt. Grimaldi's resume.
Click here to see a PDF of Lori Coppinger's resume.
Here is the Form 43 denial of Mosback's workers compensation claim:

At some point soon, I'll add the mayor's letter to the state police and to the state's attorney, as well as Mosback's own statement.

*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Mosback asks for his job back

Former Police Officer Robert Mosback asked police commissioners Tuesday to give him his old job back.

City officials said late Tuesday that Mosback appeared before the board with his attorney to request that he be rehired for the police officer post he resigned from on Sept. 30.
Plainville lawyer Theodore Wurz, representing Mosback, said the former officer "doesn't believe there was any possibility" that he could have had a blood alcohol level of .15, as city officials stated before his resignation.
Mosback quit the force a week after the city discovered from one of its insurers that Mosback had been intoxicated at the time of his on-duty June 26 accident in which he totaled a police cruiser on Riverside Avenue.

"He wishes to rescind that resignation at this point in time," Wurz told commissioners.
Mosback had been on the force for five years before stepping down following his suspension by Police Chief John DiVenere.

At the time, several city officials said they were glad he spared them the chore of having to fire him.

*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Photos from the crash scene

Here are some of the police photographs taken at the scene of the June 26 crash on Riverside Avenue when former Officer Robert Mosback veered off the road and into a utility pole. They were released today by the city in response to one of my many Freedom of Information Act requests in recent days:

*****

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

State police say no

The state police rejected a request from Mayor Art Ward to probe the handling of a controversial Riverside Drive crash where former Officer Robert Mosback struck a pole in a high-speed, late-night, on-duty wreck that totalled a cruiser and sent him to a hospital.
The state police said severe budget cuts have left them with too few supervisors to be able to spare a lieutenant to spearhead an investigation in Bristol, according to Edward Krawiecki, Jr, the city attorney.
Mayor Art Ward wrote a letter Tuesday to the state’s attorney’s office asking that it carry out the probe instead, according to several sources.
******
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Two Bristol police reports on crash say nothing about alcohol

Neither of the two reports prepared by Bristol police about an on-duty crash by former Police Officer Robert Mosback said anything about the possibility that Mosback had been drinking beforehand.

The initial accident report prepared by Sgt. Dennis Daigneault said only that Mosback received “some cuts to his hands” and that he “may have been briefly rendered unconscious” in the June 26, high-speed crash on Riverside Avenue.

Daigneault’s report, which quoted two witnesses and the officer who plowed into a pole, said that Mosback “was taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford whereupon he was held overnight for observation.”

The report said nothing about which officers were on the scene or what any of them might have seen. It also did not mention firefighters who were also there.

Daigneault, whose report was finished shortly after the accident, issued a warning ticket to Mosback for speeding and making a restricted turn.

On July 19, Capt. Eric Osanitsch filed a second report that went over the same ground briefly and then reviewed department procedures and policies that Mosback may have violated.

Osanitsch, who said Thursday he could not comment because a gag order has been placed on all discussion of the case, reported the same facts with one exception.

His report said that Mosback was transported to Bristol Hospital, where he was held overnight and released the following morning. It is not clear which report is right.

Osanitsch found that Mosback violated two sections of the police code of conduct in failing to care properly for assigned equipment and for performing his duties “in a careless or negligent manner or in disregard of proscribed procedures or established practice.”

After the captain’s report, Police Chief John DiVenere ordered a four-day suspension for Mosback to be served in mid-September.

City leaders said the first time they learned Mosback had been drinking was on Sept. 22 when a medical claims examiner phoned to say the officer’s workers’ compensation claim would be denied.

A week later, after being placed on administrative leave, Mosback resigned.

I'll get copies of both reports, and more, on this blog later today.

*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Cover up suspected in cop's crash

The city’s police chief is among the many who think that officers covered up the circumstances surrounding the on-duty, high-speed crash of a police cruiser by Officer Robert Mosback.

“I don’t doubt there was a cover up,” Police Chief John DiVenere told Mayor Art Ward on the day that an insurance investigator phoned City Hall to let officials know that a hospital toxicology report showed Mosback was drunk at the time of the June 26 wreck.

In his Sept. 22 discussion with the mayor, DiVenere added that “nobody would be able to prove” that a cover up occurred.

That proposition may be tested.

The city is waiting for word from the state’s commissioner of public safety about whether the state police will probe the case following a plea last Friday from Ward.

“We’d like to get started as soon as possible,” Ward said late Wednesday.

In Ward’s letter, the mayor said he is seeking state police help “because of the lack of public confidence in the Bristol Police Department and my own concern that the department is not able to conduct an impartial internal investigation in this matter.”

Edward Krawiecki, Jr, the city attorney, said the city is waiting for a response to its request.

Ward said he even offered to pay the costs of the investigation since he’s aware of the budget constraints imposed on state police. He also indicated that “all city personnel will be made available at the investigating officer’s convenience.”  Click here for the full story.

Here is a PDF of the mayor's letters to the state police.

*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Mosback showed "willful misconduct (intoxication)," claim manager asserts

It only took a single phone call from a medical claims administrator in Pennsylvania to end the career of a Bristol police officer.
From that September 22 call, city officials learned that Officer Robert Mosback’s workers’ compensation claim for medical bills incurred following an on-duty June 26 accident would be denied because the officer had been drinking before smashing a police cruiser into a Riverside Avenue telephone pole at high speed.
As he put in the next day on a state form, Daniel Butler, a claims administrator for PMA Management Corp. of New England, the injuries came about because of Mosback’s “willful misconduct (intoxication)” and would thus be denied.
According to several city officials who asked to remain anonymous, Police Chief John DiVenere suspended Mosback immediately after learning that a toxicology report included in the medical claim showed the officer had a blood alcohol level of .15 after the accident, almost twice the legal limit.
DiVenere wrote to Mosback on Sept. 22 to tell him “to surrender your firearm and cardkey within 48 hours” and to stay out of police headquarters unless escorted. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave.  Click here for the full story.
*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Police officer was drunk when he crashed on-duty in June, officials say

When Police Officer Robert Mosback crashed his cruiser into a Riverside Avenue utility pole in June, his blood alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit, according to city officials.
As word of the discovery percolated through City Hall, Mosback, 39, submitted his resignation from the force Wednesday. He cited personal reasons, according to Police Chief John DiVenere.
An accident report from the city police released last month found that Mosback was traveling as fast as 70 miles an hour when he struck the pole June 26 after trying to catch up with a suspicious car.
Mayor Art Ward said there is an ongoing investigation of the accident.
Edward Krawiecki, Jr, the city attorney, said the city has asked “an outside, public agency” to investigate. He said the city is working on a formal request to get the ball rolling.
“We think an outside investigation is the way to go,” Krawiecki said.
Click here for the story in Wednesday's Bristol Press. A web-only story that broke the news Tuesday can be found here. You can see a Hartford Courant story on Mosback's resignation here.
*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Larson talks on House floor about Manchester murders

*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Mayor's brother-in-law barely escaped Manchester rampage

Take a look at reporter Jackie Majerus' blog for the story. Check it out here.
*****
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com