Clown-O-Meter: CT.com's Crime & Punishment page - WCCT

Crime & Punishment: UConn TV network in trouble for airing rape jokes

By Nick Keppler — Tue, 7 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST

UConn's TV network hosted on its website and twice aired a sketch full of rape jokes. In the clip, part of a student-produced “comedy” series, a young woman runs from a masked attacker only to have the blue-light emergency phones call her a “cock gobbler,” “stinky bitch” and “howler monkey.” “[Y]ou blonde bitches don't understand,” the object says in a Siri-like voice, “always crying about being raped. Suck it up.” In the hilarious finale, the rapist strangles the woman and drags her off. Women's groups and other sensible people on campus were outraged and UCTV issued an apology and took the video off its site (though someone sent a copy to the website Gawker).

Clown-O-Meter: Vernon man attacked by teens, saved by woman with golf club

Compiled by Steven Wyman-Blackburn — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:37:00 EST

Dawer Gilani, a resident of Bridgeport, has already been arrested for stalking a woman in Fairfield. This time, Gilani allegedly chose to stalk the same woman via Facebook and Twitter using his photograph. Although Gilani used a different name, the woman was able to identify him by the photo and called the police. According to the CT Post, Gilani was taken from his home and charged with 10 counts of violation of a protective order.

Clown-O-Meter: Man wanted police to arrive quickly, so he lied about killing his girlfriend

Compiled by Timmy Semenza and Steven Wyman-Blackburn — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:08:00 EST

David Walshe, 44, was charged with impersonating a police officer after allegedly using a stolen credit card at a CVS in Old Saybrook. He was captured after allegedly displaying a police badge and identification while using the stolen card, reports The New Haven Register. Walshe also allegedly used the credit card to buy a spa treatment. He also faces an additional 27 charges on top of the impersonation charge.

Clown-O-Meter: Drug deals gone bad

Compiled by Steven Wyman-Blackburn — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:27:00 EST

Sometimes it's best to be wary of your doctors. Dr. Richard Shumway allegedly administered a radiation treatment 29 times on a patient before realizing he was performing on the wrong side of the patient's mouth. Fox News reports that Dr. Shumway faces a possible $5,000 fine.

Clown-O-Meter: Fairfield Teacher Caught With Crack Pipe

By Nick Keppler — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:40:00 EST

Former history teacher Stephen Flanagan's way of interacting with female students was "touchy" and "creepy," according to a New Milford High School human resources official. Flanagan (who retired amid parent complaints) was fond of rubbing girls' backs and shoulders and hung an unsettling number of pictures of them in his classroom. The Danbury News-Times reports parents also complained about his unsolicited photography services at cheerleading, gymnastics and dance team events. (Flanagan reportedly sent one student a package of more than 50 photos of her at her home address.)

Clown-O-Meter: Jesus returns to Cromwell

By Nick Keppler — Tue, 3 Jan 2012 17:10:00 EST

- Occupy Darien brought fewer than 10 protesters to the Gold Coast town, despite offers by organizer Margaret Rague, a lawyer/naturopathic physician, to pay Occupy Wall Street activists up to $3,000 each to come to her hometown with their message about how the upper class has absurd sums of money to frivolously throw around. (Two weeks earlier, Rague was in the news for an alleged incident of drunken hitchhiking and resisting arrest.) Darien police still paid out more than $10,000 in overtime to secure the event, even though officers outnumbered protesters, according to the Stamford Advocate .

Clown-O-Meter: East Haven PD accused of racism by Department of Justice

By Nick Keppler — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:22:00 EST

The East Haven Police Department is totally racist! — and that's the opinion of the Department of Justice. In a new report, the federal agency claims officers are more likely to pull over Latino drivers and they treat them more harshly when they do. A flabbergasted Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., told the New Haven Register the report was “a little slanderous” for “calling the Police Department discriminatory toward Spanish people.” (Um, “Spanish people”?) An unnamed cop added, “It makes officers not even want to be officers… by the way they're being portrayed.” It sucks when an entire group of people is discredited and misrepresented because of the supposed actions of a few, doesn't it?

Clown-O-Meter: "I don't sell drugs, I buy drugs"

By Nick Keppler — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:06:00 EST

-The tightfisted state budget enacted by Gov. Dannel Malloy last spring has meant an official portrait of his predecessor, M. Jodi Rell, has yet to grace the state library in Hartford. The Stamford Advocate found that Connecticut still pays up to $40,000 for paintings of its governors, commissioned after they leave office. In 1995, the legislature failed to pass a bill switching to cheaper photograph portraits. In 2004, wary of paying for a portrait of ex-governor John Rowland, then imprisoned on corruption convictions, officials found a painting of him that had already been done (for some reason) and quietly placed it in the library. The Rell portrait is in limbo until there is cash for it.

Clown-O-Meter: Man Breaks His Penis During a Bar Fight

By Nick Keppler — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:50:00 EST

Plus more crime & punishment

The Town of Oxford claims Karen Guillet, its tax collector for 24 years, stole $670,000 from town coffers and spent it on spa visits, vacations, home renovations and shopping sprees. Just as shockingly, until a year ago, coworkers believed that wealthy relatives were providing Guillet, who earned $53,000 a year, with the lifestyle she faulted. She wore expensive jewelry and clothing, gave frequent gifts and received packages from luxury retailers at the office, according to a police affidavit. A town staffer Guillet sometimes employed as a personal assistant even saw stacks of bills literally piled up in her home — next to town tax records — and did not report it.

Clown-O-Meter: Man Who Bludgeoned His Wife to Death Could Be Awarded $2 Million of Her Assets

By Nick Keppler — Tue, 6 Dec 2011 16:10:00 EST

Plus, people who made Santa's naughty list

-Sick, Sad World: David Messenger bludgeoned his pregnant wife to death in front of their 5-year-old son in 1998, but because he was found not guilty (by reason of insanity), Messenger may get control of their $2 million in assets, including $424,627 paid out on his wife's life insurance policy, if he is released from a Middletown psychiatric hospital. The Hartford Courant also found that the son is not the beneficiary of his mother's estate due to legalities stemming from his adoption by another family.