Fairfield County | featured news

STAMFORD — A man who took more than a week to report his gun stolen out of his unlocked car has been charged with reckless endangerment and failure to inform police within the three days that the law requires.

Capt. Richard Conklin said the arrest of 38-year-old Alexis Veloz came less than 10 days after he voluntarily went to police headquarters to report his fully loaded Ruger .380 caliber semiautomatic pistol had been stolen from his car.

Conklin said Veloz was “cooperative and forthcoming” while filing the report, but missed the three-day deadline set by the law.

STAMFORD — A therapist and school social worker accused of sexually assaulting a patient in his West Side office has a federal conviction on his record for importing heroin in 1992.

Alexander Pino, 47, of Stamford, did not enter a plea at his arraignment and was released Thursday after a judge reduced his bond to $100,000. Judge John Blawie also signed a protective order, prohibiting Pino from having contact with the victim.

Pino, a social worker for Hamilton Avenue and New Lebanon schools in Greenwich, was charged Wednesday with second-degree sexual assault.

REDDING - The police department has been removed from a lawsuit filed recently against Police Chief Doug Fuchs and other officers claiming their negligence may have led to the death of a suicide victim last year.

The suit filed by the family of Peter Valenti claims that Fuchs and other officers delayed medical professionals from checking on Valenti, who was found hanging in a shed on his property in April 2016, for more than 13 minutes. A paramedic located some cardiac activity when they finally checked Valenti but he died an hour later at Danbury Hospital.

DANBURY - State Police have reopened the left lane of Interstate 84 eastbound after a car rolled over into the median Wednesday.

Police said the car rolled over into the center median around 9 a.m. this morning near Exit 7. Crews with both the state Department of Transportation and the city’s fire department were on scene.

Officials reported that the driver of the vehicle was conscious and out of the car by the time emergency officials arrived. No major injuries were reported.

dperrefort@newstimes.com

STAMFORD-Three juvenile girls were charged by police in a mace attack of at least three men in downtown Stamford Tuesday afternoon.

Police were first called at 12:50 p.m. to Two Brothers Beauty Supply at 111 Atlantic Street on the report of the manager of the store being sprayed in the face with mace.

Patrol Lt. Diedrich Hohn said two girls walked into the store and one was immediately recognized by the manager as someone he suspected of shoplifting in the store in the past week.

STAMFORD-Allegations that the state and police department are engaged in a political prosecution of a former animal shelter manager was met with a stiff rebuke by a state prosecutor as the criminal case against Laurie Hollywood inches closer to trial.

In a reply to the former animal shelter manager’s request for a hearing to re-examine evidence that led to an arrest warrant being sworn out on her in June 2014, Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Cummings charged that Stamford defense attorney Mark Sherman is leading the court down a “rabbit hole.

STAMFORD-Police are searching downtown looking for as many as five young females believed to have pepper sprayed at least three people.

The first report of someone being pepper sprayed came at 12:50 p.m. when a cosmetics store employee on Atlantic Street complained ed of being maced by five girls.

The girls were reported to have fled down Bank Street.

Then at about 1:20 p.m. two more people reported being maced on Atlantic Street near the Palace Theater.

STAMFORD-A city juvenile who remained out of jail after pleading guilty to shooting another teen in the chest during a drug deal gone wrong last year began serving his prison sentence early after a Stamford judge was told the youth was doing drugs and blowing off his curfew. Savior Dominguez, 17, made a brief appearance before Judge Gary White on Tuesday morning and was quickly put into handcuffs after the judge raised his court appearance bond by $200,000.

State Troopers and passing motorists made a daring rescue on Interstate 84 Monday while pulling a New York man from a burning car.

State Police said Trooper Dogali, of Troop G in Bridgeport, was driving home from a day of training at around 2:30 p.m. when he came upon the burning vehicle in the westbound shoulder near Exit 17. Two passerby’s were already on scene and attempting to remove the unidentified New York man from the car when the trooper arrived.

The trooper grabbed a fire extinguisher from his cruiser and attempted to douse the flames, which continued despite the effort.

STAMFORD-City traffic officers ended a seven-day Click-it-or-ticket campaign on Monday not with a whimper but with a flurry of tickets for basic traffic infractions.

The effort began on Nov. 20 with the financial help of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the state Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety grant. Officers were deployed to different parts of the city to enforce seat belt violations and other on-sight traffic violations.

Five officers working from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.