Ex-Police Chief Pleads No-Contest To Larceny

By Dereen Shirnekhi, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — Former Police Chief Karl Jacobson pleaded no-contest on Friday to one count of first-degree larceny, after the state determined that Jacobson stole $178,000 in city funds designated for the police department's Confidential Informant Fund since 2019.

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Jacobson, who was arrested in February on two counts of Larceny in the First Degree by Defrauding a Public Community, will be required to pay restitution to the city for the stolen funds. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 14, 2027, to determine the exact amount. Jacobson's sentencing date has been scheduled for Jan. 29, 2027.

Therefore, Jacobson's nearly year-long criminal case is almost over.

Jacobson pleaded "nolo contendere," a plea in which the defendant does not accept or deny responsibility for the charges but waives the right to a trial and agrees to accept the penalty.

While speaking to reporters Friday afternoon at City Hall, Mayor Justin Elicker said that, to his understanding, the sentencing will be a minimum of one year and potentially up to four years.

A state police affidavit had initially reported that Jacobson stole $81,500 from the police Confidential Informant (CI) Fund as well as $4,000 from the Police Activity League (PAL).

On Friday, Elicker said that the state's attorney has now determined that Jacobson stole $178,000 in city funds since 2019. "The state's position will likely be that he should pay the entirety of the $178,000," he told reporters.

"No one is above the law and that includes the chief of police. The theft and misuse of taxpayer funds was not only a crime, but also a breach of public trust and former Chief Jacobson is rightly being held accountable for his actions," Elicker is quoted as stating in a Friday afternoon press release announcing the plea.

"Since this incident, new policies and protocols have been put in place to ensure funds allocated for the police department's Confidential Informant program are properly safeguarded and used to investigate and solve crimes, identify criminals and bring them to justice."

Jacobson became police chief in 2022. Before that, he was an assistant chief. Elicker has been mayor since 2020.

"Not just me, but so many people in the community had a lot of trust [in] the chief," Elicker said on Friday. "To find out that over such a long period of time he was stealing from the city, it's heartbreaking. You think you know somebody…"

Does the mayor think that anyone else in the police department or in city government should be held accountable, given how much money Jacobson stole over such a prolonged period of time, even since before he became police chief?

"I think that we have ensured that we have addressed the oversight with the confidential informant fund," Elicker said. "We have put ourselves in a place" that the city is on the right track. "Today is an opportunity to leave this incident behind us and make sure that this won't happen again."

The former chief retired on Jan. 5 immediately after the New Haven Police Department's three assistant police chiefs — Bertram Ettienne, Manmeet Bhagtana, and now-Police Chief David Zannelli — confronted him about his alleged theft of public funds.

"I have a problem," Jacobson told them, according to February state police affidavit. "I fix my alcohol problem. I turned to gambling. I don't know why it just got worse recently."

According to the affidavit, Jacobson lost a net of at least $214,000 after gambling over $4.4 million on the sports-betting apps DraftKings and FanDuel during his final year as police chief.

Jacobson, who has been released from state custody on a $150,000 bond and will remain free on bond until his sentencing, entered a pro forma not-guilty plea back in April. At the time, his lawyer, Gregory Cerritelli, told the Independent that the not-guilty plea is a formality enabling the pretrial process to move forward.

The state's investigation into just how much money Jacobson embezzled had still been ongoing. Once the state concluded its investigation, Cerritelli had explained in April, the findings would be made available to the defense as part of the discovery process, and Jacobson's plea may or may not change.

Thomas Breen contributed to this report.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.