UPDATE, MAY 22 2015: All charges were dropped in connection to this incident.
Original post:
A Shelton cop is on paid leave after police charged him with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct Monday in connection with a fight he allegedly had with his brother-in-law over the weekend.
The officer, Daniel Judkins, 29, was arraigned at Superior Court in Derby Tuesday, where a judge ordered him to surrender any guns he owns while the case is pending.
Judkins’ brother-in-law, Lorenzo Durante, 35, faces a charge of fourth-degree criminal mischief in the case.
All of the charges are misdemeanors.
Both men will return to court May 21.
A man who answered the phone at a publicly listed number for Judkins declined to comment Thursday.
Judkins’ lawyer, Edward Gavin, said Judkins is innocent.
“Dan was the one that contacted the police and he acted appropriately at each and every step of the way,” Gavin said. “I have every confidence that after this is thoroughly looked into that Dan will be vindicated.”
Status
Shelton Police Chief Joel Hurliman said Thursday that Judkins has been placed on paid leave while the case is pending.
Hurliman said he hasn’t yet decided whether Judkins will face additional discipline. Shelton police investigated the circumstances surrounding the fight.
The chief said police will perform an internal investigation separate from the criminal case.
“The administrative investigation is not complete, so I’m going to see what the outcome of that is before I make any decisions,” Hurliman said.
The Incident
According to an eight-page arrest warrant written by Shelton Detective John Hubyk, Judkins called cops about 1 a.m. Saturday to his Shelton home, where his wife had thrown him a birthday party.
Judkins told an officer that during the party, he had gone to the home’s basement to shoot a game of pool because he wanted to be alone. He said Durante came downstairs and asked him to come back upstairs and join everyone else.
After saying no several times, he said Durante kept asking him, so he hit his cue stick against the table, breaking it.
The two got into a shouting match that became physical.
Judkins said Durante “charged him and grabbed his neck and began to choke him,” so he struck Durante in the face “with an open fist,” and then restrained Durante.
The two grappled on the floor before other partygoers came downstairs and separated them.
Durante was arrested and released on a $500 bond after Judkins complained he had damaged a door and sheet rock in the basement.
About eight hours later, Hubyk and Detective Richard Bango were called to the police station “to investigate a matter that involved a Shelton Police Officer.”
At the station, the two detectives met with Judkins and Lt. David Moore, the commander of the department’s patrol division.
Judkins provided cops with a written statement about the incident and provided a list of people who attended the party.
Witnesses from the party told cops that Durante and several others were playing beer pong in Judkins’ garage when Durante left the garage and went down to the basement, after which they heard the two men yelling and fighting.
Durante told police he had gone to the basement because he wanted Judkins to be his partner for the drinking game the group was about to play.
Durante said Judkins broke the cue stick and started to scream at him, so he screamed back, and “they started to wrestle and went to the floor.”
He told police that he suffered a black eye, a welt on his head, and a fat lip in the scuffle, but declined medical attention.
