State police on Friday released former Shelton police officer Loren Casertano on a written promise to appear in court after processing him on warrant charging him with a number of drug crimes.
The warrant is not yet publicly available.
Outside the state police Troop I barracks in Bethany, Casertano’s lawyer, Rob Serafinowicz, said his client was arrested as retribution for not settling a federal lawsuit he filed against the city and Police Chief Joel Hurliman.
Hurliman denied that was the case Thursday, but declined to comment further because he hadn’t seen the arrest warrant.
Casertano was charged with two counts of illegal possession of a controlled substance and single counts of illegal possession of narcotics, possession of drug paraphernalia, and not having a prescription in its original container.
Serafinowicz said the new charges are based on “things allegedly found in a locker that he hadn’t had access to in over a year.”
Casertano was taking pain medication for an injury at the time, Serafinowicz said.
He guessed that the charge for not having a prescription in its original container may have arisen because some of the officer’s pain pills were on the floor of the locker.
He said the other charges might be related to other medications Casertano was taking at the time.
The former officer, who declined to speak to reporters Friday, is scheduled to appear in Superior Court April 10, though Serafinowicz said that date will probably be moved because of a scheduling conflict he has.
The lawyer said Casertano, who worked at the Shelton Police Department for 24 years before his firing, was an honest cop.
“He’s one of the good ones,” he said. “I’ve dealt with many of the bad ones.”
Click here for a previous story about the case with more background about Casertano’s battles with the police department.
