Public Safety

With Vehicle Engulfed in Flames, Police Close Post Road Near Exit 11

Police: DUI for Darien Man, 71, Driving at 1:16 AM on Long Neck Point Road

Police: DUI for Man, 26, After One-Vehicle Accident Leaves His Car on a Stone Wall

Community Leaders Denounce Anti-Gay, Anti-Women, Anti-Jewish Messages in Darien

Police: DUI for Man, 30, Found Sleeping Behind the Wheel in the Middle of an Intersection

Police: Darien Man, 21, Arrested After Video of Uber Driver’s Assault Goes Online

Police: West Ave Woman, 32, in Physical Altercation at Home, Injures Victim’s Face, Destroys Meds

New Canaan Man, 24, Charged With Sexual Assault and Videotaping Sex Involving Darien Children

How Not to Make Friends and Impress People

Mountain Lion Recently Reported Just North of Darien, and Not For the First Time

Police: Three Darien Men Recently Charged in Separate Domestic Incidents

Police: 19-Year-Old Man Arrested After Teenage Party With Alcohol at His Home

Police: DUI for 31-Year-Old Darien Woman After Her Vehicle Strikes a Stone Wall

Police: Hale Lane Resident, 80, Fatally ‘Struck by Her Own Vehicle’ — No One Else Seems To Be Involved

Police: Much Ado Online About Not Much We Know After Teen Approached by Someone

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | October 12, 2021

Darien Driving While Intoxicated 2021

By David Gurliacci | October 12, 2021

Public Safety

By DAVID GURLIACCI | September 30, 2021

Anti-Semitism 2021

By DARIENITE.COM | September 25, 2021

Darien Driving While Intoxicated 2021

By David Gurliacci | September 8, 2021

Assault 2021

By David Gurliacci | September 1, 2021

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 31, 2021

Sexual Assault Arrests 2021

By David Gurliacci | August 25, 2021

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 24, 2021

Footer Featured Widget

By MICHAEL DINAN | August 18, 2021

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 16, 2021

Providing Alcohol to Underage Drinkers 2021

By Darienite.com Staff | August 12, 2021

Darien Driving While Intoxicated 2021

By David Gurliacci | August 12, 2021

Darien Fatalities 2021

By DARIENITE.COM | August 7, 2021

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 2, 2021

News related police, law enforcement agencies, courts, as well as Darien’s fire departments, ambulance service and emergency management activities

No one was injured when a vehicle caught on fire at 9:06 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 6, and was fully engulfed in flames on the Post Road near Exit 11 of Interstate 95, Darien police said. Police said that when they arrived at the scene, all occupants had left the vehicle. Officers temporarily closed the Post Road in both directions at that spot. Firefighters from Darien Fire Department went to the scene and put out the flames.

An arrest on a charge of driving while intoxicated resulted when a police officer, driving north on Long Neck Point Road at 1:16 a.m., Sunday, saw a southbound vehicle crossing the double yellow line, police said. Darien police gave this account of the incident, including accusations not proven in court:

The officer saw the other vehicle at 1:16 a.m., then turned around and followed it, until it stopped in a driveway on Pear Tree Point Road. That turned out to be at the home of the driver, a 71-year-old man. After coming close to the driver, the officer could smell a strong oder of of an alcoholic beverage. The driver didn’t adequately perform standard field sobriety tests, so he was charged with driving under the influence.

Police who arrived at the scene of a car accident on Haskell Lane last May found a vehicle stuck on a rock wall, with the driver still inside. Darien police gave this account of what happened, including accusations not proven in court:

Police received a call about the accident at 9:17 p.m. on May 19. When they spoke with the driver, Charles Bazelais, 26, police could smell alcohol on his breath and saw his eyes were glassy. He was treated at the scene by Darien EMS-Post 53 and taken by ambulance to Stamford Hospital. Police didn’t announce any information about his condition.

Community leaders on Friday denounced graffiti found this week in a boy’s bathroom at Darien High School that insulted women and threatened gay people. They also denounced an anti-Jewish comment made in an online Darien chat group. “The incidents this week have been reported to the Darien Police Department, and the [school district] administration has aggressively used all the tools legally available to conduct its investigation,” the leaders said in a letter sent to parents and staff in Darien Public Schools. “There is no place for sentiments of hate, bigotry, anti-Semitism or religious discrimination of any kind in our schools or community,” the letter said. “These behaviors are very disturbing and unacceptable.

A 30-year-old man was asleep behind the wheel of a car stopped in the middle of the intersection of Hollow Tree Ridge Road and Allwood Road when an officer on patrol came by, police said. Darien police gave this account of what happened next (including accusations not proven in court):

The officer saw the car, a Subaru sedan, at 1:53 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 4. He approached the vehicle and could see the driver was apparently asleep. It took several attempts for officers to rouse the man.

A 21-year-old Darien man has been arrested after assaulting an Uber driver who had dropped him off on Tulip Tree Lane on Friday night, Aug. 27, police said. “The Uber driver received minor injuries, for which he was later taken to a hospital, Darien police said. This video of the incident, recorded from within the car, was released and appeared on News 12. It shows the driver being punched and pleading with the man assaulting him:”

Police gave this account of the matter, including accusations not proven in court:

Shandaken Ford, who lives on the Post Road in the area between its intersections with Nearwater Lane and Beach Drive, was the first of two passengers being driven in an Uber car.

Darien police say that when they were called to a West Avenue home on Aug. 8, were told that three days before a 32-year-old woman living there had gotten into a physical altercation with another person there. The woman was later arrested on a warrant after police had determined that the woman had injured that person’s face and destroyed some medication owned by that person. Police did not describe the “visible injury to the victim’s face” or say whether or not the victim had received treatment for it from a hospital or doctor (or whether the injury was major or minor). By state law, police do not describe victims in public statements, so the victim’s gender or age are not public.

A New Canaan man, now 24, has been arrested on accusations that he molested at least one Darien child and videotaped sex between children, according to Darien police. The incidents are alleged to have occurred six years ago, according to statements his lawyer made Wednesday in state Superior Court in Stamford. Quinten Yonkers of Weed Street in New Canaan had been released on a $250,000 after New Canaan police arrested him Aug. 18 on a warrant charging him with first-degree possession of child pornography and promoting a minor in an obscene performance. [Editor’s note: None of the accusations in this article have been proven in court.

A woman with a friend at a downtown restaurant was approached by a man who began talking to them, and then something surprising and disturbing happened, police were told. The man “suddenly and without reason” pulled up his shirt, revealing a gun tucked into his waistband, according to the account police were given. No threats were made, but the woman and her friend became frightened and left the restaurant, Bodega Taco Bar at 980 Post Road. The incident was reported to police at about 11 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 17.

Someone told New Canaan police that a mountain lion was spotted on Gerdes Road, just north of the Darien-New Canaan border, at about 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 14. The big cat sighting is the third in the past month in New Canaan, and close to the previous one, Aug. 8, on White Oak Shade Lane. The sighting on Gerdes Road is the third in the past month and very close to the most recent one, on Aug.

Darien police responded to several unrelated domestic incidents in recent weeks resulting in criminal charges being filed against three town residents, including a charge of fourth-degree sexual assault in one case. Police described the incidents with these accounts; no accusations have been proven in court:
July 28, Misdemeanor Sexual Assault Charge
On July 28, at 10:20 a.m., a victim told police that a man, a 50-year-old resident of Turnabout Lane, had made “several unwanted sexual contacts” with the victim over the past several months, according to a police news release. “Video evidence was provided to corroborate the allegations,” the news release said. It provided no details of what was in the video or videos. Police applied for an arrest warrant for the man and received it on Aug.

Alcohol being drunk by underage adults at a party on Salt Box Lane “contributed to” a “medical event” in which an ambulance was called in, Darien police said. All the partygoers were below the legal drinking age of 21, and the 19-year-old host was arrested on a charge of providing alcohol to underage drinkers, police said. In a police news release, police did not say: whether more than one person experienced the “medical event,” or or describe in any way what the medical event was, how dangerous it appeared to be, whether the person or persons was or were taken to a hospital or released from a hospital if they were taken there. Police gave this additional account of the incident, including accusations not proven in court:

The call for medical service was made at 11:55 p.m. on Saturday, July 30. Police did not say how many people were at the house.

After a vehicle driven by a 31-year-old Darien woman struck a stone wall on Hollow Tree Ridge Road, she was charged with driving while under the influence, police said. Darien police gave this account of what happened, including accusations not proven in court:

Police were called to the roadway outside 95 Hollow Tree Ridge Road at 1:15 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 7, where the vehicle had struck the stone wall at a sharp turn in the road. The police news release did not describe damage to the vehicle or to the wall or say whether or not the driver appeared to be injured. The driver, Allesandra Mossa, a resident of the same street, a bit north of Interstate 95, appeared confused and smelled of alcohol.

Kathleen Fogarty, 80, of Hale Lane, was fatally struck by her own vehicle Thursday afternoon in the parking lot of Middlesex Commons, Darien police announced. The news release from Police Chief Donald Anderson didn’t say how that happened, but it did say that no one else and no other vehicle seems to have been involved in the incident. Fogarty was the driver, according to the news release. Sometime before 4:26 p.m., the incident was reported to authorities. Fogarty was not alive when police and an ambulance crew arrived.

« August 2022 »

An incident Friday involving a teenager being approached as she got in her vehicle sparked incorrect rumors about what happened, Darien police said in a news release. Nothing in the Monday afternoon announcement indicates a crime was committed or that there is evidence a crime was even attempted. But police say they are actively investigating the matter. According to the release, at about 11:45 p.m. police responded to a report of the incident near the intersection of Glenvale Avenue and Christie Hill Road. Police were told that a white, four-door Jeep Wrangler with a black top had been parked on the street nearby.