Police last week arrested two residents of a White Oak Shade Road home, ages 63 and 24, following multiple domestic incidents.
At about 9:25 p.m. on July 5, officers were dispatched to the house on a report of a dispute.
There, officers conducted an investigation and charged the older man with third-degree criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. They also charged the younger man with disorderly conduct.
About four hours later, at 1:31 a.m. on July 6, a victim called authorities back to the house saying the older man had violated conditions of release, according to a police report.
Police charged the man with three counts of illegal possession of an assault weapon, three counts of second-degree violation of conditions of release and four counts of illegal purchase of a large capacity magazine. He was held on $50,000 bond and scheduled to appear the same day in state Superior Court. The man has not pleaded, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records. He remains in custody and is now scheduled for arraignment July 7, the records show.
The same man had been arrested by state police last September and charged with second-degree threatening, second-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree breach of peace—the same charge that police filed against a former first selectman following a 2022 incident at Town Hall, an arrest warrant application that the state’s attorney never acted on, so no arrest was made—and third-degree criminal mischief.
[Note: This article has been updated to make it even more clear that in the 2022 incident involving former First Selectman Kevin Moynihan at Town Hall—an incident that led the New Canaan Police Department to file for an arrest warrant application for second-degree breach of peace against the sitting highest elected official of the town—the state’s attorney did not act on the application, meaning no arrest was made.]
Why is this article being used to direct people to an issue with our former First Selectman? This isn’t needed. SMH
I was appalled by the editorial decision to include a link in your recent article about the White Oak Shade Road domestic incident directing readers to an entirely unrelated story involving your own reporter. The prior incident had no apparent relevance to the facts of the domestic case being reported.
Including a link to a story in which the reporter was personally involved creates the appearance that a personal dispute was injected into otherwise unrelated news coverage. Whether intentional or not, it gives readers the impression that the article was used to revisit an old grievance rather than simply report the news.
Journalists are expected to avoid not only actual conflicts of interest but also the appearance of them. When a reporter has a personal history with someone connected to a story, that relationship should be disclosed or the assignment should be handled by another reporter. Instead, your publication chose to direct readers to that unrelated incident, which undermines confidence in the impartiality of your reporting.
As a reader, I found this decision unprofessional, unnecessary, and damaging to the credibility of NewCanaanite. I hope you will review your editorial standards and explain why that unrelated link was included in an article where it served no legitimate journalistic purpose.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Alana. I respectfully disagree with you. For New Canaan Police to apply for a warrant to arrest Kevin Moynihan as sitting first selectman was a highly unusual and newsworthy case, and I see nothing wrong with including a link to this public document for readers who may have missed it—for example, new residents of the town. I also see nothing exceptional about it—we didn’t invent hyperlinking here at the New Canaanite. In fact, in my view, for us to handle our coverage differently just because I was the victim/target in the incident would be injecting myself in a biased and unprofessional way. So, we may have to agree to disagree. Thanks again for submitting your comment.
“Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the barrel ” / HL Mencken
There is no fight here (tho I love that quote). In fact I’ll go in and add a note to this article that the state’s attorney never signed the arrest warrant application, meaning Kevin Moynihan was never arrested in this incident. Just to be sure we’re not inadvertently distressing (or even appalling 😉) anyone.