NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/category/new-canaan-news/new-canaan-police-fire)
Arrests and investigations out of the New Canaan Police Department as well as coverage of activity from New Canaan Fire Co. No. 1, including capital projects, staff promotions and work with community groups. We post tips and services from the New Canaan Fire Marshal as well as community events that involve police, fire and paramedics, such as the annaul Fishing Derby, talks at venues such as New Canaan Library and bulletins from officials in each organization.
This week on 0684-Radi0, our free weekly podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to New Canaan Police Deputy Chief John DiFederico about the department’s efforts to intensify enforcement of traffic violations near schools, which open next Thursday. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Fresh Green Light, reinventing driver’s ed in New Canaan. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:
Police on Tuesday afternoon arrested a 53-year-old Summer Street woman and charged her with driving under the influence.
At about 4:27 p.m. on Aug. 20, an officer was dispatched to White Oak Shade Road near Farm Road on a report of an erratic driver who had crossed the double-yellow line, according to police. The officer found the driver and, while following her on Lakeview Avenue, saw her traveling in the oncoming traffic lane, according to a police report. During a subsequent stop, the motorist failed field sobriety tests, the report said. She refused to undergo a test to establish her blood-alcohol level, it said.
A town official on Tuesday voiced concerns about the characterization of New Canaan’s most heavily used park as unsafe. Saying he believed that some of the talk around town about the safety of Waveny Park was “misguided a bit,” Selectman Nick Williams raised the issue during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. While saying that he was “in favor of safety,” Williams asserted that “Waveny is one of the best parks in America and one of the safest parks in America.” Speaking during a section of the Board’s agenda dedicated to general town matters, Williams said that suggestions to the contrary were “perhaps politicized,” but was not specific about how. “I think it’s unfortunate that people are talking about Waveny as if it’s Central Park in the 1970s,” Williams said.
The New Canaan man arrested last month after yelling at a woman smoking in a designated area outside Waveny Pool touched the woman’s face inadvertently while ripping the cigarette out of her mouth, according to a police incident report.
The 62-year-old Jelliff Mill Road man “was remorseful and stated he realized his actions weren’t the best,” according to the report, obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public-records request.
The confrontation occurred around 4:30 p.m. on July 21, and news of the arrest—including a report that the man had “slapped” the woman, as relayed by police—garnered wide attention and generated much discussion online and on social media. According to a case report written by the investigating officer for the New Canaan Police Department, the woman had gone to “smoke a cigarette outside of the pool entrance in the smoking area” when the man approached her and “stated he thought she should stop smoking and be considerate towards the environment, as there were children around.”
The woman “proceeded to state that she was allowed to be smoking, as she was in the smoking area,” according to the incident report. Yet the man “continued to yell” at the woman, “inching closer to her and then hit her in the face on her left cheek,” the report said. In speaking with the victim, the investigating officer “observed she had no signs of injury and she did not state she was in any physical pain.”
While the woman wrote her voluntary statement recapping the incident, her husband arrived and “was very upset, questioning what had occurred, if the offender was arrested and recommended that [his wife] receive medical attention.”
At that point, the woman said she wanted medical attention, New Canaan Emergency Medical Services was dispatched to the scene, and she “was checked in the ambulance and was said to have suffered bruising to her left cheek,” the report said. Police charged the man with second-degree Breach of Peace.
Police late Friday arrested a 39-year-old New Canaan man and charged him with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct. At about 10:08 p.m. on Aug. 16, officers were dispatched to a Vitti Street home on a report of a domestic dispute between two occupants of the residence, officials said. Following an investigation, authorities brought the misdemeanor charges, according to a police report. It isn’t clear what the dispute involved, how it turned physical, whether or how the man is related to the victim or what was the extent of the victim’s injuries.