Ansonia Police Officer Charged In Domestic Dispute

An Ansonia police officer has been placed on paid administrative leave following his arrest during a domestic dispute Sunday morning. 

Edward Magera, 41, of Oxford, was charged with disorderly conduct about 8 a.m. Sunday by the resident state trooper’s office.

Magera was arraigned at Superior Court in Derby Monday afternoon, where his case was continued to the family relations docket for Aug. 5.

He was issued a partial protective order, which prohibits him from threatening or assaulting his wife. It does not prevent him from contacting her otherwise. 

Details about the incident are sparse.

Police Chief Kevin Hale would not comment specifically on the charge, deferring all comment to state police, who handled the arrest. 

State Police spokesperson Lt. J. Paul Vance said any details about the arrest would have be obtained through the file at Superior Court. 

Magera’s file at the clerk’s office did not contain an arrest report.

A disorderly conduct charge is a class C misdemeanor — a minor charge — and results from a variety of actions, that include making unreasonable noise, fighting, annoying or interfering with another person, or disturbing an assembly of people. 

Hale said Magera has been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard department procedure. 

Magera had to turn in his department gun and badge during the leave, Hale said. 

The department will do its own investigation into the incident, Hale said, to determine if any department rules or regulations were violated. 

Magera was recently honored by the department as one of three officers who helped rescue an elderly woman from a burning building on North Street last October. 

Magera and the other officers also received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Brotherhood Committee’s Everyday Hero Award” last December for the same rescue.

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