PASTOR SEX ASSAULTS
The former pastor of a Connecticut church has been convicted of sexually assaulting female parishioners, including a 15-year-old girl who later had suicidal thoughts. A jury Thursday found 59-year-old Francisco Moran guilty of second-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and coercion. The assaults occurred in 2014 and 2015 when he was pastor at Good Samaritan Church in Old Lyme. Prosecutors say he inappropriately touched a woman who attended the church when she was at his Clinton home seeking help. He also reached under the shirt of the woman’s teenage daughter.
CHEMICAL ATTACK
A New Haven man who police say threw acid at a woman who refused to marry him has been sentenced to six years in prison. 52-year-old Derek Rawls was sentenced Thursday after earlier pleading guilty to first-degree assault and violating a protective order. The attack happened in January 2016. A police report said Rawls turned off the water in the woman’s apartment before he threw acid on her so she could not wash it off. She was treated at a hospital for third-degree burns on her face, neck and chest and was permanently scarred.
NEWBORN ABANDONED
Police say they have identified the mother of a newborn boy whose umbilical cord was still attached when he was found alone behind a Connecticut grocery store. The baby was wrapped in women’s clothing when he was found Sunday night in Danbury, and images of that clothing made public helped lead police to the mother. She was taken to the hospital. The baby boy, who was just a few hours old when he was found by a man who called 911, also remains at the hospital.
DEADLY HIGHWAY CRASH
Police say a Connecticut man has died after a single car crash on Interstate 84. The driver has been identified as 48-year-old Svedi Coma, of Southbury. Police say he lost control of his Volvo Thursday evening near Exit 17. State police say the car spun, hit a rock embankment then rolled over. Coma was ejected from his vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
