Danbury, Fairfield County | featured news

RIDGEFIELD — This past November, voters quietly re-elected Rudy Marconi to a seventh term as first selectman — the second straight election in which Marconi faced no opposition.

[...] his long political career, which included a 2010 gubernatorial bid, almost never got off the ground.

“We were doing very well, but the last week of the election, the Republican Party took the liens and ran them in local paper as an ad, accusing me of fraud and saying that I should be in jail,” Marconi said.

Selectwoman Barbara Manners, who has known Marconi since her 1995 run for first selectman, said

After being accused of exposing himself in the Newtown public library in 2001, Michael Seri was convicted, sentenced to six months in prison and labeled a sex offender.

[...] in 2003, prosecutors dropped the charges against Seri — a Danbury artist, poet and Army veteran — after fingerprint evidence linked the crime to a known sexual predator who had been arrested for public indecency at other libraries in the area.

Since he couldn’t live with his siblings, who also had young children, Seri slept in his car until a friend found him an apartment in Danbury.

The state awarded him $370,0

During the probe, authorities seized hundreds of vials of steroids, about 600 grams of raw testosterone powder, about 350 grams of powder cocaine, and four long guns.

Mase, a registered nurse and a competitive weight lifter, bought steroids from Santucci and distributed them to others, including athletes who competed in body-building and weight lifting competitions, authorities said.

DANBURY — A pedestrian was struck by a car Wednesday morning on Clapboard Ridge Road.

Assistant Fire Chief Mark Omasta said the victim was taken to Danbury Hospital, but it was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were.

The pedestrian’s identity has not yet been released.

The accident took place about three blocks north of Danbury High School about 10:45 a.m.

Fire and police personnel are investigating.

SOUTHBURY — A shoplifting suspect tried to avoid being arrested Wednesday by hiding stolen merchandise underneath her sweatshirt to make her look pregnant, police said.

While speaking to her, police learned State Police had a warrant for her arrest for welfare fraud and first-degree larceny, according to the report.

Southbury Ambulance was then called to take her to Danbury Hospital, where instead of a baby, medical personnel found $91 worth of stolen clothes and other items underneath her sweatshirt, according to police.

Officers were called to the house for a report of a domestic disturbance about 7 p.m. Police said the suspect, Joshua Rosado, 25, of Bronx, N.Y., had an active protective order banning him from contacting the victim.

Rosado was charged with third-degree burglary, third-degree assault, interfering with an officer, threatening, violation of a protective order, risk of injury to a minor and breach of peace.

DANBURY — A pet shop owner accused of animal cruelty induced two witnesses to lie to authorities in their written statements, which he then mailed to police himself, court records show.

Richard Doyle, 55, of Mahopac, N.Y., was arrested last week at his American Breeders store on Federal Road and charged with two felony counts of witness tampering.

Doyle had been charged with three counts of animal cruelty in July, about four months after he performed a surgical procedure on a Neapolitan mastiff’s inner eyelid, an operation police said he was not licensed to perform.

After questioning b

The 43-year-old reality show star and her husband, Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice, pleaded guilty last year to hiding assets from bankruptcy creditors and submitting phony loan applications to get some $5 million in mortgages and construction loans.

The husband will start serving his 41-month sentence in March, an arrangement aimed at ensuring the couple’s four daughters have one parent at home at all times.

RIDGEFIELD — A two-car crash has closed part of Route 35 in both directions Tuesday afternoon, police said.

The accident happened shortly after 2 p.m. near Walgreens.

Police said at least one person appeared to be injured.

More information as it becomes available.

In addition to settlements with over 130 hospitals, the government previously settled with Medtronic Spine LLC, the corporate successor to Kyphon Inc., for $75 million to settle allegations that the company caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare by counseling hospital providers to perform kyphoplasty procedures as inpatient rather than outpatient procedures.

All but three of the settling facilities announced today were named as defendants in a whistleblower, lawsuit brought under the False Claims Act, which permits private citizens to bring lawsuits on behalf of the United States an