Bridgeport, CT - State Marshal's Police Car Stolen - Lights and Siren Used to Stop and Rob Motorist
 

Connecticut Post Online
Article Last Updated:08/15/2007 03:38:27 PM EDT

BRIDGEPORT — An employee of the top state marshal is accused of taking his boss's car, equipped with a siren and emergency lights and, impersonating a state trooper, pulled over a city motorist and robbed him.  Gabriel Luna, 38, a mechanic in the East Main Street auto repair shop owned by Marshal Charles Valentino, was charged with third-degree robbery and impersonating a police officer in connection with the incident earlier this week.

Luna was held in lieu of $20,000 bond, pending arraignment Sept. 11 in Superior Court.

Valentino was elected last year as the chairman of the Connecticut Marshals Advisory Board. State marshals serve legal papers and do evictions. "That's just dumb, dumb," Valentino said when informed of Luna's arrest. He is attending the Fraternal Order of Police convention in Kentucky. "I hired him Friday, I guess he won't be coming back to work," he added, declining further comment.

Police Lt. James Viadero said that a local resident complained to police on Sunday that he had just been robbed by a man driving a vehicle he described as a police car. The man said he was driving on Brooks Street when he heard the sound of a siren and saw a car with flashing emergency lights pull up behind him. Viadero said the driver of the so-called police car identified himself as a State Police trooper and demanded to see the driver's identification.

The man said the "trooper" then took about $900 from his wallet, told the man he didn't belong in this country and then drove off.

Viadero said police Detectives Robert Winkler and Dennis Martinez identified the car used in the robbery as Valentino's official Crown Victoria, which had been reported stolen that same day from his repair shop. They also determined that Luna had been assigned to do repair work on the car.

But, as the detectives were conducting their investigation, the car re-appeared at the repair shop.

Viadero said when the detectives confronted Luna he confessed that he had been drinking and took the car out for a joyride, during which he activated the car's lights and siren.

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