A concerned citizen witnessed alleged hand-to-hand drug dealing at a Knorr Avenue house in Seymour.
Another told police that 10 cars a day stop by the home, and men came out and made exchanges with the drivers.
And a confidential informant used police money to twice buy marijuana from the alleged dealers.
Those details were among several outlined in a search warrant used to raid a home at 48 Knorr Ave. last month.
The search warrant was unsealed Friday at Superior Court in Derby.
The pages read like a police procedural.
Seymour police, who filed the papers in court last month, said the behavior described in the document showed they had probable cause to search the home at 48 Knorr Ave. on Feb. 23.
A message seeking comment was left with Lt. Paul Satkowski Friday afternoon.
Police arrested three people, and gave three others written infractions, as a result of the search.
Rob Serafinowicz, a lawyer representing the family that lives in the house, hotly disputed the allegations contained in the affidavit.
Much of the information, Serafinowicz said, recounts minor violations of the law, “hardly the crime of the century, hardly something to base such an investigation on.”
Police took a number of items from the house after the raid, according to an inventory of seized property:
- A safe with small bags and one larger bag holding a green plantlike substance
- Three scales
- Two pistols and two rifles
- Several boxes of ammunition
- Two “improvised” smoking pipes, one made from a 32-ounce Powerade bottle
- Four computers
- Two phones and two cell phones
The Charges
Three people at the house were issued infraction citations for allegedly having marijuana or drug paraphernalia.
Two others — Crystal Pignataro, 20 and Corey Zenko, 22 — were charged with marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, respectively, and also risk of injury to a minor, because police said children were in the home.
A third, Roberto Thompson, 23, was charged with risk of injury to a minor, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
All three who face criminal charges have posted bond and are scheduled to appear in court March 20.
Kimberly Pignataro, 46, Crystal’s mother and one of those issued an infraction, has disputed allegations by police that her house was in “deplorable” condition during times when minors were there.
She says police targeted her family because they “have nothing better to do.”
FILE PHOTO Serafinowicz
He said the alleged hand-to-hand drug transactions witnessed by the citizen could have just been handshakes.
As for the controlled buys, Serafinowicz said there isn’t any indication police found any of the money the informant used to allegedly buy marijuana when they raided it.
“Until I see marked bills, which police have the ability to do, then I’m going to doubt that,” he said.
Serafinowicz said he wouldn’t speculate on cases against the other defendants, but as for his client, he said he couldn’t see why police attributed criminal activity to Crystal through “some theory of vicarious liability.”
“When you look at this, I don’t see any criminal activity being attributed to Crystal, her brother, or her mother,” he said.
He said the March 20 court date would probably be a brief appearance for the sake of entering a not guilty plea.
