Danbury, Fairfield County | featured news

DANBURY — A city man was found with cocaine and a gun after he collapsed outside a Putnam Drive house Monday morning, police said.

Marqece Murphy, 19, of Kingswood Drive, was lying unconscious on the steps of an unknown person’s house about 10:30 a.m. when emergency medical personnel arrived, according to the report.

NEW FAIRFIELD — A New York woman was charged with boating under the influence Friday night at Candlewood Lake, authorities said.

Kaitlin Keenan, 27, of Queens, was caught illegally driving a boat after sunset, according to EnCon, the police division of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

When police activated their emergency lights and tried to stop the boat about 8:30 p.m., Keenan drove back to her dock on East View Road, authorities said.

SHERMAN — A 46-year-old man was taken to Danbury Hospital after he jumped from a large rock at Candlewood Lake on Saturday afternoon, authorities said.

The accident happened about 12:30 p.m. at a well-known spot called Chicken Rock near the New Fairfield-Sherman border, according to EnCon, the police division of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The East Hampton, Conn., man hit a rock after falling about 25 feet, but his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, authorities said.

No further information was immediately available.

A Southbury man is facing drug trafficking charges after state police said they found about 1.5 pounds of “high quality” marijuana in his car.

Jameson Irvine, 27, of Reservoir Road, was driving west on Interstate 84 in Tolland about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when he was pulled over for a traffic violation, according to police.

Officers from Troop C noticed a smell of marijuana as soon as they approached the driver, police said.

DANBURY — Three people were taken to the hospital Friday night after a two-car crash on southbound Route 7, state police said.

The accident happened about 10 p.m.

DANBURY — Police officers typically work long and physically draining hours, but many of those in Danbury have had it a little worse this summer.

“A lot our officers are being ordered to work doubles,” said Sgt. David Cooney, president of the police union.

The man who shot a Bethel police officer nearly 30 years ago will remain a patient at a Middletown mental hospital after a state panel on Friday denied his request to move into a halfway house.

The state Psychiatric Security Review Board unanimously rejected the request mainly because Kenneth Ruggles, 68, continues to deny he has a mental illness and insists he would not take any medication if released.

Ruggles, who is schizophrenic, was found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity for shooting Officer Michael Daubert on Mansfield Street.

On May 8, 1986, the then-Danbury resi

DANBURY — Two sergeants were named lieutenants during a swearing-in ceremony at city hall Thursday morning.

They were Martin Lobraico Jr., a 25-year veteran of the Danbury Police Department, and Andrew Corrado.

Mayor Mark Boughton said in a statement that Lobraico, who was promoted to sergeant in 2005, has provided “outstanding service and contributions” in drunk driving enforcement, which has gained him recognition by the Fairfield County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Corrado joined Danbury police in 2005 and had been a sergeant since 2012.

DANBURY — After a months-long investigation, police learned a city couple was growing and selling marijuana out of their Boulevard Drive home, authorities said in a news release Thursday.

When member of the police department’s Special Investigations Division executed a search and seizure warrant for the home about 5 p.m.

BETHEL — A former town police officer is again trying to stop a man who shot him nearly 30 years ago from being released from a state mental hospital in Middletown.

The state Psychiatric Security Review Board on Friday will consider a request from Connecticut Valley Hospital to allow Kenneth Ruggles, 68, to live full-time in a community residence in Middletown.

Ruggles was acquitted by reason of insanity for shooting Officer Michael Daubert when he was a 21-year-old rookie in 1986.