In Botched New Haven Police Search Warrant, Target Died By Suicide: PD

NEW HAVEN, CT — Police Chief Karl Jacobson called it "hitting the door," but it was the wrong door Special Victim Unit cops busted down with a battering ram earlier this month while executing a warrant in a child pornography investigation.

Members of the police department's SVU were investigating the illegal exchange and production of child pornography, the New Haven police chief said. A search and seizure warrant was reviewed and approved for 590 East St., Unit 2, he said.

On April 6, a Thursday, at around 6 a.m., as seen on police bodycam video, police knock loudly, yell, "Police!" then a beat later, using a battering ram, bust into the apartment. The footage shows a startled and frightened woman being handcuffed while other armed officers go into a bedroom and rouse a terrified young woman, the handcuffed woman's 20-year-old daughter.

Soon, cops realized they'd broken into the wrong apartment, uncuff the woman, and begin to explain why they're they and apologize. The Hartford Courant and other media identified the woman as Stacey Wezenter. Jacobson said she's filed a civil complaint following the botched raid.

They'd later go to the right floor where police found a "large amount of evidence," that the chief said backed up their case, one he called "active, ongoing with sensitive information related to child pornography." The warrant was for "information" and so their target, Timothy Yergeau, 35, was not taken into custody as cops needed to investigate further, Jacobson said, so they could arrest Yergeau. The Monday after, Yergeau died by suicide, the chief said.

Jacobson said police treated the woman with "respect and dignity."

"Yes, we went into the wrong residence," but it was for a child pornography investigation, he said, "something we take very seriously."

Yergeau was named the Long Wharf Theater marketing director in 2022, and, according to his LinkedIn profile, which has since been removed but was viewed by Patch, he worked for the New Haven Public Library Foundation, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England and the Hartford Stage and the Greater Hartford Arts Council.

An internal affairs investigation into the botched raid has begun, Jacobson said, explaining that officers went to the wrong floor of the building, something even Wezenter noted, as seen and heard in the bodycam footage, has been an issue for visitors to the building that includes a medical office on a ground floor.

Read the full redacted search warrant here:

NHPD Redacted Search Warrant by Ellyn Santiago