Update, Wednesday, Sept. 21:
Brian Cook, a sex offender on the lam from Idaho, apparently told Darien police he was only in town for about nine hours, according to police, but information in the police report itself casts doubt on whether the child rapist was in Darien for such a short period of time.
According to a report from an Idaho newspaper, Cook was arrested in connection with a sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl.
“Through investigation it was determined that Cook had only been in the Darien area for approximately nine hours,” a Darien police news release said on Thursday, Sept. 15.
Cook was arrested at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13. Nine hours before that would have been 10:30 p.m. the day before. A police spokesman said on Monday (Sept. 19) that the information in the news release was likely based on Cook’s statements to police. The spokesman, Sgt. Jeremiah Marron, had no further information on Cook’s length of time in Darien.
Brian Cook (photo from Darien police website)
Cook said he was walking from Philadelphia to Maine, according to the police report. If so, he would have had to walk across town to get to Cherry Lawn Park on the east side of town. If he was lying (and police indicated he told other lies when they interviewed him) he may have gotten a ride and stopped in town.
Cherry Lawn Park is half a mile away from Route 1 and Interstate 95, the major routes through town. If Cook was dropped off by someone riding through town, he would have had to walk to Cherry Lawn Park.
According to the police report filed in state Superior Court in Stamford, Cook had with him a blanket, suitcase, pillow and a “cart.” If that was a shopping cart, it’s unlikely it was carried in a vehicle. If he were only in Darien since 10:30 p.m. the night before, it is unclear where he would have found the cart, with nearly all stores closed. If he walked into town pushing the cart, it would have been a long, difficult walk.
To get to the woods behind Darien Nature Center, a stranger arriving in town at 10:30 p.m. would have had to come across the park (located on Brookside Road, a north-south road well away from major east-west roads on Cook’s path to Maine), then gone into the woods behind the nature center and found a spot to put down his blanket, unroll his tarp and sleep. All in the dark.
The news release also stated that Cook was charged with molesting a girl under a year old, which is what a one-line statement in a federal database stated (the statement, from a printout of a search of the database, was included in Cook’s court file in state Superior Court in Stamford).
But according to the Post Register newspaper of Idaho Falls, Idaho, “Cook, 35, was convicted in Idaho in 2011 of statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.”
According to the newspaper, “Court records show Cook supplied the 13-year-old girl with alcohol and raped her 20 to 30 times over a period of several weeks.” The girl told police she had sex with Cook five times in a consensual relationship.
Her father was aware of the relationship, the newspaper reported, citing court records, and the girl initially denied there was a sexual relationship, but then told police about it. Cook was said to have declared he would marry the girl when she got old enough.
Cook was released on probation in February 2012, the newspaper reported, but authorities determined he had violated parole with a misdemeanor theft that May, so he served more time in prison, until December 2014, when he was released again.
Original article, Thursday, Sept. 15:
Darien police, alerted by a report of a man camping out in Cherry Lawn Park, found an Idaho fugitive and convicted child rapist on Tuesday in the woods behind Darien Nature Center, police said.
Brian Cook (photo from the Idaho State Police sex offender registry)
He had two long knives in his possession, longer than allowed under state law, so he was charged with two counts of possession of a dangerous weapon. By the time he was arrested, police had learned through a records search that he was a fugitive wanted by Idaho law enforcement authorities, who were willing to apply for extradition.
A police announcement and documents filed in state Superior Court in Stamford described the man’s criminal history, his arrest and their investigation this way (including accusations not proven in court; statements attributed to him are statements police attributed to him):
Brian Cook, 35, had been convicted on a charge of statutory rape, a felony, by an Idaho court in 2010. According to Idaho records, the victim is a “female under age of 1.”
He later violated the terms of his probation, and — he told Darien police — he walked out of a home he shared with his stepfather because the two weren’t getting along. He told police he had gotten rides from truck drivers as far as Philadelphia and had been walking ever since. He told police he planned to travel to Bangor, Maine, then sneak over the Canadian border.
At 7:36 a.m., two police officers went into the woods behind the nature center and in about two minutes found the spot where Cook was sleeping. A tarp had been set up, and he had a blanket and a pillow with him, along with a suitcase and a cart.
When questioned by police, Cook gave his correct name and birthdate, but initially said he didn’t remember his Social Security number. He said he had lost his driver’s license. He told police he was walking from Denver to Bangor in honor of his daughter, who had died from leukemia.
This aerial image in Brian Cook’s Stamford court file has an “X” in the spot where he was found, just east (to the right) of Darien Nature Center in the lower right corner. (It’s a bit difficult to see the “X” which is half way between the Nature Center building and the right side of the map.)
When police did a record search they found a man with an extensive criminal history in Idaho and Oregon. When a police officer told Cook it was hard to believe he couldn’t remember his Social Security number, Cook said he thought the officer asked if he received Social Security benefits, then gave the officer a number. It wasn’t the one police associated with his name and date of birth.
Police also found there was an active arrest warrant from Idaho for a probation violation charge stemming from the rape charge. The warrant had been issued only five days before, on Sept. 8.
The officer told Cook he hadn’t been telling the truth. At that point, the officer said in the police report, “I could see his eyes welling up with tears, and his demeanor changed.
“‘I’m on the run from Idaho for a statutory rape case,'” he told the officer, as the officer recounted in the police report.
The officer told Cook he would be charged with an infraction because camping overnight in a Darien park is a violation of a town ordinance, and the arrest was taking place because Cook had no identification with him.
Before Cook was patted down, he told the officer he had a small knife concealed in his belt buckle. When police searched his suitcase, they found his Idaho driver’s license. He admitted to police that he was originally from Idaho and that he had made up the story about coming from Denver.
After he was arrested on the rape charge, he said, instead of going to jail, he went in an intensive program for about 14 months, where he was evaluated on whether or not he could be released without incarceration.
Within two months, however, he was arrested on a charge of violating parole after being charged with committing a small theft. That led to a four-year stint in prison, until his release last December, he said.
He had been living with his stepfather, but they weren’t getting along, he said, so he just left and started walking on Aug. 31.
When a police officer was about to go through his suitcase, the officer asked Cook if there was anything that might cut him. Cook said he had a few knives, adding, “There’s one I might get in trouble for.”
He did. In fact, he was charged with having two knives with blades long enough to violate state law about carrying dangerous weapons. One, a “machete-style knife,” had a 10.5-inch blade; the other, a 6-inch blade. All the rest had blades less than 4 inches long.
Cook appeared Wednesday in state Superior Court in Stamford. He waived any objections to being extradited back to Idaho, and Idaho law enforcement agents are expected to appear at Cook’s next court hearing on Friday, Sept. 23, where they will take custody of him and return him to that state. He is currently held on $300,000 bond and is incarcerated in Bridgeport Correctional Facility.
“Through investigation it was determined that Cook had only been in the Darien area for approximately nine hours,” a Darien police news release said. “At this point Cook is not being investigated for any other incident in Darien or the surrounding areas.”
Cook has blond hair, blue eyes, several tattoos, is 5 feet, 11 inches in height and is very thin, weighing 129 pounds.