The Shelton Board of Ethics is waiting to investigate a complaint from Shelton police officer Loren Casertano, until his criminal case works its way through the court system, according to a letter the board sent to Casertano.
Casertano in December filed an ethics complaint against the department and police Chief Joel Hurliman, alleging the chief mishandled an internal affairs investigation and lied about materials given to Casertano through a Freedom of Information request.
At the time the complaint was filed, Hurliman dismissed it as “baseless.”
The ethics board discussed the complaint during its January and February meetings, and on Feb. 7, wrote a letter to Casertano saying the board would defer an investigation into the complaint until his legal matters were settled.
“Due to the pending criminal matter concerning the issues raised in the Ethics Complaints and since the Police Department’s policies and procedures provide the mechanism for any necessary investigation into the matters, the members of the Board of Ethics have agreed to defer from investigating the complaints,” the letter stated.
The minutes of the Feb. 3 meeting indicate four complaints were discussed during an executive session and no action was taken on any. All four are referenced in the letter to Casertano. Of the four, three were deferred, and one was rejected because it didn’t indicate which section of the code was violated.
Only the contents of one of the complaints — labeled #2010 – 01 — has become public.
Casertano’s wife, Kim-Marie, objected to the deferral, in a letter dated Feb. 18, saying the ethics complaints and the criminal case are not related.
The Criminal Case
Casertano is facing a fifth-degree larceny charge after police accused him of trying to extort money from his daughter’s friend after her iPod was stolen from school.
Police claim Casertano asked for more money than the iPod was worth. Casertano claims the department is persecuting him for bringing up issues within the department.
His criminal case is heading toward a trial in May, according to Casertano’s attorney, Rob Serafinowicz.
The Complaint
The ethics complaint #2010 – 01, filed the last week of December 2010, alleges Chief Hurliman violated various sections of the city’s charter and the police department’s code of ethics.
One of those allegations is connected to the internal investigation into the iPod issue.
Casertano has issues with the way the iPod investigation was handled, saying the police report left out crucial information.
In his ethics complaint, he claims the police officer who wrote the report lied about the information, then later admitted it to the department’s police union president.
Casertano also makes claims in the ethics complaint that are separate from his court case. For example, he claims the chief altered a video Casertano requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
The contents of complaint numbers 2011-01, 2011-02 and 2011-03, referenced in the letter to Casertano, have not been made public.
Kim-Marie Casertano has said she is “appalled” by the deferral of the complaint.
“Our system says you are innocent until proven guilty,” Kim-Marie wrote in a letter to the ethics board. “It seems like you are finding Loren guilty. You are playing judge and jury.”
