Crime & Safety

Shelton Cop Fired For 'Multiple Serious Violations' is Fighting Back

Loren Casertano, who had served with the police department for 23 years, has been fired following an internal affairs investigation dating back to 2008.

A officer who had been charged with larceny and tampering with evidence during a 2008 investigation has been fired by the department after an internal affairs investigation.

Chief Joel Hurliman told Patch Monday night that as of 4 p.m. on Friday, May 20, Loren Casertano had been discharged from the company. Hurliman cited “multiple serious violations” against the department code, but would not go into specific detail.

Casertano had been a member of the Shelton Police force for over 23 years, according to Hurliman, “so it’s upsetting for all of us, too.”

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Hurliman said a pre-termination trial was held on May 19, where Casertano was given the opportunity to respond to the charges against him, “but he didn’t.”

Casertano did, however, respond by taking his grievances to a New Haven attorney firm and plans to fight back against the police department’s punishment.

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His lawyer, John “Chip” Walsh, Jr., said the Shelton police “alleged conduct unbecoming, untruthfulness in the investigation, things of that nature,” all of which Casertano insist are false accusations.

“We intend to file a grievance through the union and if necessary take that grievance to arbitration where we are very confident we’ll be successful,” Walsh said.

If the Board of Mediation and Arbitration side with Casertano, Walsh said they “will be seeking reinstatement, full back pay and make him [Casertano] whole for any losses he has sustained—either the loss of overtime opportunity, loss of benefits, et cetera.”

This internal affairs investigation dates back to March 2008, when Casertano’s daughter’s iPod was stolen by a former friend at . An iPod was returned, but Casertano and his wife Kim-Marie claimed it was a less expensive model. Investigators determined the Casertano family purchased an iPod for $133.60, while the student thief’s family compensated $370.98.

In an attempt to prove their claim, Kim-Marie presented the Ethics Board with a receipt for engravement on an iPod. Police said the evidence was phony, and she was charged with fabricating physical evidence.

Casertano was put on paid administrative leave following his arrest and had filed multiple ethics complaints against the police department, claiming the officer handling the case lied on the official reports.

“[Chief Joel Hurliman] never told the court of this lie. He is withholding exculpatory evidence and this is a gross misconduct of justice,” Casertano wrote in a letter to the Ethics Board. “I feel this is an attempt on the part of the Shelton Police to manipulate the legal and ethical system to destroy my career.”

When asked if he felt the police were indeed trying to manipulate the system, Walsh said: “I’m not going to say he [Casertano] was targeted. I can say that in any investigation it has to be conducted fairly and objectively and I do not believe this investigation was either fair or objective.”

Walsh also said the length of the investigation was “ridiculous.”

“The length of time that it took is inexcusable, and secondly I don’t think there’s adequate substantiation to support the charges filed against my client,” he said.


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