Manchester Man Charged After Posts Directed At Governor, Senator

HARTFORD, CT — A 36-year-old Manchester man has been charged in connection with "alarming" social media posts directed at Gov. Ned Lamont and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, state police said.

Sean Richard Palla surrendered to state police on a warrant at the Troop H barracks Wednesday. He was charged with second-degree harassment, posted a $1,500 bond and is due in Hartford Superior Court on July 14, records show.

According to a warrant, an Instagram post on May 24, 2022 tagging Gov. Ned Lamont and authored by an account called "t0psecretalien" said to the governor, "you are DEAD!" Murphy was tagged in a similar post, state police said in a warrant.

By the next day, site administrators traced the account to Palla, who said he has sole control over it and wanted to get the attention of public officials out of "frustration" with "Connecticut Government," according to a warrant.

He told detectives that "DEAD" was a reference to "brain dead" and said he meant no physical harm," according to a warrant.