Danbury, Fairfield County | featured news

DANBURY — A Federal Road pet shop owner accused of animal cruelty now faces witness tampering charges.

Doyle was originally charged in July when police said he performed a surgical procedure on a Neapolitan Mastiff’s inner eyelid even though he wasn’t licensed to perform the procedure.

Doyle was also accused of confining a critically ill exotic kitten and failing to provide it immediate veterinary attention until the animal needed to be euthanized.

BETHEL — A long-debated new police station will soon become a reality after residents on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favor of funding the project.

“I think what we approved in the end was excessive and insensitive to the virgin neighborhood it situates itself in and the school zone,” Infurchia said by phone Thursday night.

The planned facility, at Judd Avenue and Route 302, is to be built on town-owned land south of Bethel High School.

Supporters of the project have said the existing police station, which was built in 1974 on Plumtrees Road, is too small, that it floods during h

The hours-long standoff began at 12:15 p.m. after George Bateman, 60, of Southeast, N.Y., called his life insurance agent to express suicidal thoughts and threaten to use violence against any police officers who came to his house, Putnam County Sheriff Donald Smith said in a news release.

A short time later, a state police remote-controlled robot was sent inside the house, where it was discovered that Bateman had killed himself with a firearm, authorities said.

Bethel police found the skimming device on Aug. 21 and sent it to the state Forensic Science Laboratory for processing.

Police said DNA pulled from the device matched to two similar cases in New York City, including one at a McDonald’s restaurant on Third Avenue, where the suspect was seen on surveillance video also in August.

NEWTOWN — Two people were taken to the hospital after a tractor-trailer overturned Tuesday on eastbound Interstate 84, authorities said.

The driver, Stratford resident Joel Guzman-Guzman, 41, was trapped and had to be extricated — which took almost an hour, according to Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue.

NEWARK, N.J. — A man who fatally shot a Ridgefield college student during a 2012 drug deal in New Jersey was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison.

[...] of his death, the 2009 Ridgefield High School graduate was going into his senior year at Villanova University’s business school in Philadelphia.

The shooting took place in the hallway of a senior apartment building just 12 miles west of Manhattan.

Williams was found guilty Nov.

The hours-long standoff began at 12:15 p.m. after a resident on Nichols Road in Southeast, N.Y., called someone to express suicidal thoughts and threaten to use violence against any police officers who came to his house, Putnam County Sheriff Donald Smith said in a news release.

The Putnam Emergency Response Team, a special weapons and tactics unit comprised of sheriff’s deputies and officers from two local police departments, was dispatched to the area and immediately established a perimeter around the house, according to the report.

The 20-year-old Danbury nightclub owner, found guilty last month of wire fraud and money laundering, asked a judge Monday to allow him to broaden his use of Facebook.

Prosecutors had actually wanted to tighten the restrictions on Bick’s use of social media, citing a celebratory message he posted on his personal Facebook account the day of his conviction.

[...] Einhorn successfully argued that for many of Bick’s Tuxedo Junction customers, there is no real distinction between his personal and business social media accounts, and it would be a hardship to restrict his personal account.

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Shortly after officers left the house, the resident called back saying that the same car had returned to the driveway and a man was again looking in the bushes, police said.

Since police were still in the area, they found the suspect outside the house.

The law of supply and demand is making it difficult for local school districts to find enough substitute teachers.

“During the recession, a lot of certified teachers who had left teaching for other careers were laid off from their jobs in the private sector and were available to sub,” Lawson continued.

Adding to the demand for substitutes when teachers take sick days or personal time is the time needed for state-mandated professional training.

New Milford's pool of substitutes once numbered about 200 for teachers, paraprofessionals and secretaries, said Ella Mae Baldelli, the district