Ex-Police Receive Court Continuances In Theft Case

By Andrew Gorosko

DANBURY — Two former Newtown police officers, who each have been charged with multiple felonies for their alleged theft of funds from the Newtown Police Union’s financial accounts, were granted continuances in their cases on October 14 in Danbury Superior Court.

Both Andrew Stinson, 35, of Watertown, and Domenic Costello, 33, of Stratford, are now scheduled to appear in court on November 2. The November 2 appearances would mark the tenth time that their names have appeared on the court docket since their arraignments last spring.

It is expected that on November 2, the companion cases will have their first “supervised pretrial conference,” at which a judge would supervise discussions among the prosecutor and the defense attorneys over the resolution of the cases. At such sessions, possible plea agreements to a resolve a case may be discussed.

That conference had been scheduled for October 14, but Mr Stinson’s attorney was participating that day in a criminal trial and thus was not able to represent Mr Stinson.

Consequently, the court agreed to continue both cases to November 2, a date on which it is expected the pretrial conference would occur.

State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III is the prosecutor in the case. Mr Stinson is represented by attorney James Diamond. Mr Costello’s lawyer is Eugene Riccio.

Both ex-police officers have pleaded not guilty to all felonies that are pending against them. Both men have elected to have jury trials. According to court documents, approximately $187,307 was stolen from police union accounts. Of that sum, Mr Stinson is listed as being responsible for $95,668 of the missing money, and Mr Costello for $91,639 of the missing funds.

Arrest warrant affidavits for Mr Stinson and Mr Costello describe the police union’s learning last October that it was missing large sums of money due to illegitimate withdrawals from union financial accounts by the two former police officers.

During a police investigation into the missing money, the two men explained that they had “borrowed” money from union accounts to cover personal expenses and intended to pay back the union.

“Both Stinson and Costello admitted that they did take out ‘personal loans’ to help with personal problems,” according to the court papers.

Mr Stinson formerly was the union president and Mr Costello was the union treasurer.