OFFICER JUSTIFIED IN SHOOTING
NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) – New London State’s Attorney Michael Regan says a police officer was justified in firing shots at a 23-year-old man who then jumped to his death from the fourth floor of a parking garage at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in September of 2016. Regan released a report Friday that notes Michael Goodale had pointed a gun at police Sergeant Kevin Leach, who was trying to make an arrest for an outstanding probation violation. Regan’s report says Leach fired two shots at Goodale, hitting the suspect in the foot. Witnesses told police that Goodale then leaped from the garage. An autopsy showed he died from blunt force injuries. Regan says Leach would have been justified in using deadly force, but noted the death resulted instead from the 81-foot fall.
POWER WAS OUT IN PARTS OF NORWICH
Some one-thousand Norwich Public Utilities customers were without power for awhile today after a car hit a utility pole on Lawler Lane around 9 AM today. Service was completely restored by early afternoon. The pole had to be replaced. No injuries reported.
DEPORTATION PROTEST
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Immigrant advocates have rallied in Connecticut to protest the planned deportation of a couple who have been in the U.S. for nearly 20 years and have two children who are American citizens. Demonstrators outside Hartford’s federal courthouse called Friday for federal officials to halt the deportation of Xiang Jin Li and Zhe Long Huang. The Farmington couple has been ordered to return to China on Feb. 16 under the Trump administration’s tougher immigration policies. A federal immigration official didn’t immediately return a message Friday. Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal says the deportation would be cruel and un-American. The couple has no criminal records. They entered the country illegally in 1999. They have been considering whether to leave their two sons, ages 5 and 15, with friends in the U.S.
NO PROGRAM FOR EX-DISPATCHER
DANIELSON, Conn. (AP) – A Danielson Superior Court judge has rejected a request for a special diversionary program for a former police dispatcher accused of interfering with an emergency call involving her son. Judge John Newson declined Ruth Bragg’s application Thursday for the pre-trial program, known as accelerated rehabilitation. The 55-year-old former Putnam police dispatcher has pleaded not guilty to charges of interfering with police and third-degree hindering prosecution. Police say Bragg failed to send officers when the friend of a woman with a restraining order against 22-year-old Timothy Bragg reported the younger Bragg was nearby. Bragg’s lawyer says his client was punished by losing her job. Newson says the allegations are too serious for the program and her actions could have led to “catastrophic” consequences. Bragg returns to court March 6.
