A day before Shelton police officer Loren Casertano was fired last May, a search of his police department locker allegedly revealed eight prescription painkiller pills, a vial with testosterone residue in it and two syringes with traces of the male hormone in them.
Those findings were the basis of Casertano’s arrest last month on drug charges, a move his lawyers said was motivated by his unwillingness to settle a federal lawsuit he has pending against the city.
The contraband allegedly found in Castertano’s locker is detailed in a seven-page warrant written by Trooper Shawn Sequeira of the state police Central District Major Crime Squad.
Casertano’s attorney told the Valley Indy via e‑mail Monday that Casertano had a prescription for everything found in his locker.
Background
Castertano was on paid administrative leave when Shelton police searched his locker in May 2011 — and had been since 2008, when he was arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from his daughter’s friend over a missing iPod.
Casertano denied the iPod accusation and was eventually granted entry into accelerated rehabilitation, a special form of probation. He was fired shortly thereafter. Castertano and his attorneys have repeatedly said he was targeted by police department brass for speaking out against the department.
According to court documents, Shelton police opened Castertano’s locker to give him back any items that had been sitting there since 2008.
As a result of the locker search, Casertano was charged with possession of narcotics, possession of a prescription not in a container, and possession of drug paraphernalia, and two counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Casertano is scheduled to appear Friday (April 13) at Superior Court in Derby.
The Locker
On the afternoon of May 19, Castertano was in the process of being fired from the police department, according to the affidavit. A “pre-termination hearing” had been scheduled.
A few hours prior to that hearing, Shelton police Chief Joel Hurliman asked that the contents of the locker “be removed and inventoried so the items would be ready to be returned to Officer Casertano after the hearing.”
The affidavit states Shelton police policy notes that police do not need a reason to search an officer’s locker.
After Shelton officers allegedly made their discovery, they brought in outside agencies to investigate.
According to the affidavit, state police were called by Peter Fearon, an inspector from the Ansonia-Milford Judicial District’s State’s Attorney’s office.
Shelton Police Capt. Michael Madden told Sequeira that about 9:10 that morning, Madden, two lieutenants, a detective sergeant and a detective opened the locker.
When they found what seemed to be drugs in it, the affidavit says, they contacted Hurliman, who then called Fearon, who told them to stop performing the inventory and to secure the scene for state police.
State police then arrived and seized several of the items that were in the locker, including:
- A plastic bag with eight tablets that had “VICODIN ES” printed on them
- Two glass “drug vials,” one of which was labeled “Testosterona 50”
- Two plunger-type syringes.
Six days later, state police sent the items to the state’s Forensic Science Laboratory in Meriden for testing.
Those tests came back in February, according to the affidavit, and found:
*That the pills marked “VICODIN ES” contained hydrocodone, a painkiller,
- That the vials contained testosterone
- That the syringes contained testosterone
Sequeira spoke over the phone with Casertano the afternoon of March 7, according to the affidavit, during which the former officer “expressed his frustration” due to the past iPod case and told Sequeira that he had shared his locker at the police department with his brother and deceased father.
Casertano also said he’d contact his lawyer to see about setting up an interview with Sequeira, the affidavit says, but those efforts never bore fruit.
Reached for comment via e‑mail Monday, Casertano’s lawyer, Rob Serafinowicz, said only: “He has a prescription for every one of the drugs that were found.”
Serafinowicz has previously said Casertano was taking pain medication for an injury at the time.
The Federal Civil Case
Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit Casertano filed in November 2009 — alleging he was fired for trying to uncover corruption in the department — is still pending.
A conference was held in that case last Monday, according to federal court records, and “progress has been made” toward settling the case, according to court documents. Another settlement conference will be held within the next two months.
Casertano also has a complaint pending against Hurliman with the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission alleging Hurliman has withheld certain department documents from him.
A hearing on that complaint is scheduled for later this month.
