Shelton Police Chief: Scanlon "Innocent Until Proven Guilty"

The city's police chief said he believes the state police assigned to Sharon Scanlon's arrest case have done a "thorough" investigation and that he does not expect any more arrests to be made in connection to the 57 felonies she is accused of committing.

Scanlon, Shelton's former assistant finance director, turned herself into Connecticut State Police on Jan. 23 and awaits her next court date of Feb. 5. It was determined that Scanlon drafted fraudulent checks from City Hall and deposited them into her personal checking account via ATM at selected locations, over a ten year period, police said. The amount taken is in excess of $500,000, though officials have not yet released an exact amount.

"I think they [state police] did a pretty thorough investigation. They spent a lot of time on it and worked very carefully so if there's any loose ends we'll tie them up," Chief Joel Hurliman said, though he was reluctant to give out more information as this is not the city's case.

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"As far as openness, we pretty much rely on the state for the release of information and it would be imprudent for us to be doing so when this has not yet gone to trial," he said.

Hurliman said Scanlon faces 20 years in prison on the larceny charge alone, but that he can't predict what will happen in court.

"Obviously if you're very cooperative that’s going to have an affect on the sentencing. Our system here is still that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and I'm very comfortable with that."