Crime & Safety
Stonington Police Sued For Not Providing Fatal Crash Report
The estate of Johanna and Seth Wakeman, the couple struck and killed in Mystic by a drunk driver, is suing cops, court records show.
NEW LONDON, CT —A complaint has been filed against the Stonington Police Department by the estate of Seth and Johanna Wakeman. The couple, he 88 and she 78, were struck and killed by alleged drunk driver Carol Belli in Mystic last March. The complaint filed in New London Superior Court alleges that the police department has refused to provide reports and access to potentially key evidence in the investigation of the crash, and deaths of the couple, necessary to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit.
Belli was charged with being intoxicated but has not been charged in the deaths of the elderly couple. As was reported by The Day, which obtained a copy of the police report after an open records request, the 73-year-old retired educator from Groton failed one field sobriety test and was arrested, though was not handcuffed.
According to the complaint called a Bill of Discovery filed May 31 by attorney Robert Reardon on behalf of the Wakeman's estate, “No report has been provided by the Stonington Police Department in direct violation” of state law.
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The failure of the police turn over investigative files, the complaint reads, “impairs their ability to investigate this civil wrongful death cases involving an intoxicated driver, including locating and interviewing witnesses, reconstructing the circumstances of this accident and determining the conduct of Carol Belli before and at the time the accident occurred.”
The court documents describe that the Stonington Police Department investigated, took measurements and photographs of “critical evidence” that showed where Belli’s car was and where the bodies of Wakemans lay. The photos and other investigatory evidence would have also noted other “important conditions.”
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Read the full court complaint here.
NL Superior Court Bill of D... by on Scribd
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The Superior Court complaint alleges that the evidence has “been only available to the investigating police officers present at the scene that night.”
A summons was served to Stonington Police May 31 with a “return date” of June 25.
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