Ponce
14th December 2012, 08:13 AM
(STEPHEN BUSEMEYER) The state trooper who allegedly stole cash and a gold chain from the victim of a fatal motorcycle crash was one of two troopers who went to the victim’s mother’s house that night to tell her that her son had died, according to an arrest warrant. Trooper First Class Aaron Huntsman, 43, was the lead investigator of the Sept. 22 crash in Fairfield that killed John Scalesse, 49, of Orange.
Huntsman, an 18-year veteran, faces larceny charges and an internal investigation after his own dashboard camera recorded a conversation with emergency personnel at the scene that police say implicates him in the theft of $3,700 in cash. Scalesse had spent Friday, Sept. 21, with friends. They met for lunch at a restaurant in Woodbridge and rode their motorcycles to a festival in lower Manhattan. Scalesse peeled bills from a large bundle of cash throughout the day, a friend told police.
They had dinner together, then drinks, and headed back to Connecticut around 10:30 p.m., the warrant states. They stopped in Greenwich, took their helmets off and continued on in separate directions, his friend told police. Huntsman was the first trooper to arrive at the crash, which happened at midnight on the Merritt Parkway, the warrant states. Two other troopers arrived soon after. Scalesse’s motorcycle had collided with a truck, and Scalesse, still alive, was soon loaded into an ambulance. Michael Schumann, a Fairfield firefighter who had treated Scalesse on the ground, climbed into the ambulance with him for the ride to the hospital.
He told police that two troopers came up to the back of the ambulance and asked if there was a wallet. Schumann saw a bulge in Scalesse’s pocket, cut the pants open, and inside he found a large amount of cash and some plastic cards. Schumann told police he handed everything to a trooper — later identified as Trooper Mark DiCocco — who said he needed only the man’s ID. DiCocco handed the cash back to Schumann and told him to put it back in the man’s pocket, Schumann told police.
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=178446
Huntsman, an 18-year veteran, faces larceny charges and an internal investigation after his own dashboard camera recorded a conversation with emergency personnel at the scene that police say implicates him in the theft of $3,700 in cash. Scalesse had spent Friday, Sept. 21, with friends. They met for lunch at a restaurant in Woodbridge and rode their motorcycles to a festival in lower Manhattan. Scalesse peeled bills from a large bundle of cash throughout the day, a friend told police.
They had dinner together, then drinks, and headed back to Connecticut around 10:30 p.m., the warrant states. They stopped in Greenwich, took their helmets off and continued on in separate directions, his friend told police. Huntsman was the first trooper to arrive at the crash, which happened at midnight on the Merritt Parkway, the warrant states. Two other troopers arrived soon after. Scalesse’s motorcycle had collided with a truck, and Scalesse, still alive, was soon loaded into an ambulance. Michael Schumann, a Fairfield firefighter who had treated Scalesse on the ground, climbed into the ambulance with him for the ride to the hospital.
He told police that two troopers came up to the back of the ambulance and asked if there was a wallet. Schumann saw a bulge in Scalesse’s pocket, cut the pants open, and inside he found a large amount of cash and some plastic cards. Schumann told police he handed everything to a trooper — later identified as Trooper Mark DiCocco — who said he needed only the man’s ID. DiCocco handed the cash back to Schumann and told him to put it back in the man’s pocket, Schumann told police.
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=178446