More fire departments across the state are using technology to help them fight fires.

An app called Rover Mobile is something departments are using to reduce response times and increase manpower.

For volunteer departments, these things can be a challenge. And the first few minutes of a response are crucial.

Captain Geoffrey Giordano with the Stevenson Volunteer Fire Department, who created the app, saw that first hand during a call.

“The first person got here, waited a little bit of time, and then left and as he was going out, two additional people came in and they saw tail lights,” Giordano, president of Spotted Dog Technology, explained.

The app, designed by firefighters for firefighters, is a communication system that helps crews respond quicker. 

Dozens of fire departments now use it.

"If we see a fourth guy is coming he's only 30 seconds out we wait for him so now we're going to have more guys to the scene,” explained Chief Mike Maccalous of the Drakeville Volunteer Fire Department.

When a call comes in, the app sends an alert to firefighters, letting them know how much manpower they need and when that need is met.

It also lets users know how long it will take for firefighters to reach the station, as well as if there are hydrants or hazards at the fire.

Career departments say they’re finding a use for it too. Torrington started using it back in December to alert off-duty firefighters when they needed them to come back in.

“We can get crews to the scene faster, we can get protection to the city faster, fill one engine first, get the protection of the rest of the community,” said Deputy Chief David Tripp of the Torrington Fire Department.

Tripp said the app saves them about $4,000 a year compared to other systems. It’s technology departments say is making a difference with how they fight fires.

“We're staffing our trucks better. It's really a safety issue,” Giordano said.

Other agencies, like EMS, police search and rescue, and animal rescue groups can use it too. Around 25,000 fire responders use the app.

Naugatuck police are investigating a report that a man approached a 15-year-old girl and asked her to take a ride with him.

Police said the teen reported that around 2:15 p.m. Thursday she was in her driveway on North Church Street getting something out of a vehicle when a male driver approached her and called out to her. He reportedly told her to “come into the vehicle and go for a ride with him over the bridge.”

The girl ran inside and told a family member who called police.

The driver is described as having short black hair with no facial hair in his mid-30s with an average build. The teen thought there may have been a small child in the passenger seat.

The car is described as a newer style four-door black car.

Anyone with information on this is asked to contact Naugatuck Police at 203-729-5221 or the NPD Confidential Tip Line at 203-720-1010.

A high school football coach who was beaten by Hartford police is joining forces with the officer who wielded a baton at him in an effort to hold the city of Hartford accountable. His case reveals how state law can leave victims of the most severe forms of police brutality empty-handed.

On a December night in 2004, Tylon Outlaw, then 30 years old, was leaving a restaurant at Hartford’s Union Place when he spotted old friends getting in a cab. Crossing the street, he heard a shout, he said, followed by a kick to the chest and blows to his head from behind, coming from men who did not identify themselves as police.

“I could feel the blood trickling down my face and into my eyes, and I’m wondering what’s going on because I’m still getting hit,” Outlaw said.

A baton strike to his knee broke his patella, ending his career as a professional arena football player.

“I felt like shutting down on life. You know, I’ve been an athlete all my life, and they took it away from me,” he said.

Over the years since, Outlaw dedicated his life to coaching. He has taken Bloomfield High School to multiple state championships, all while ignoring the pain he says he feels with every step.

In 2016, a federal jury awarded Outlaw more than $450,000 in compensatory damages after finding Officer Michael Allen, who used the baton, violated his civil rights in the arrest that a judge later described as a “jaywalking incident.”

“Given that same set of circumstances, wouldn’t do anything different,” Allen said in an interview with NBC Connecticut Investigates.

He was just doing his job that night, he said, although he declined to answer any questions about what happened. Yet 14 years later, Allen and Outlaw are joining forces against the city of Hartford.

According to state law, individual police officers are not supposed to be on the hook financially for using excessive force, unless their actions were “willful or wanton.”

The city claims Allen’s behavior meets that standard, leaning on the jury’s verdict that found Allen used excessive force in an “intentional and reckless” manner, and will not pay the judgment.

Attorney Patrick Tomasiewicz, who represents Allen, disagrees. “There was a civil rights violation of use of force, that was unreasonable but not willful or wanton or maliciously intended,” Tomasiewicz said.

The debate over the intention of the law is now playing out in state court, and police outside of Hartford are paying attention.

John Krupinski, President of the Connecticut Fraternal Order of Police say a court decision in Hartford’s favor could make it easier for other cities to remove the financial safety net for officers facing risky situations. “It’s going to affect everybody across the state,” Krupinski said.

If that happens, Krupinski said officers could think twice about taking action when it’s needed. “For an officer to go to work, he’s gotta know that the city has his back,” he said.

Without financial backing from the city, Allen is personally liable to pay Outlaw’s judgment. It now amounts to more than $500,000 including legal fees, and it’s more than he can afford, he said.

“It’s un-comprehendible,” Allen said.

As a result, Outlaw has yet to see a penny.

His legal team joined Allen’s lawsuit, hoping to recover the money Outlaw needs to pay a mountain of medical bills that is still growing.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, who is running for reelection, declined repeated requests for an interview and sent NBC Connecticut a long statement in response to questions we asked over email.

We wanted to know if Allen was ever disciplined by the department for using willful and wanton excessive force in the Outlaw incident, and were told, “Under the leadership of Chief Rovella and Chief Rosado, the Hartford Police Department has shown a strong commitment to accountability. I cannot tell you why Officer Allen was not disciplined fifteen years ago under different leadership, but I can tell you that I am certain this case would be handled differently today. Our Department holds itself to high standards, and has responded swiftly and strongly to all cases of conduct unbecoming of an officer, excessive force, and even threats of excessive force…”

We also wanted to know why Allen remained on active duty following the 2016 jury verdict and subsequent appeal, and were told, “Officer Allen retired three days after the final court decision that found him to have acted in a willful and wanton manner, and the City has no options, under either state law or the contract with the Hartford Police Union, to withhold pension benefits…”

The statement continued, “Our officers put themselves at risk every day, and the overwhelming majority of officers hold themselves to the highest standards, put service above self, and treat their oath of office as a sacred commitment. The actions of one officer should never be allowed to taint the selfless service of countless others…”

In a nod to the police body camera program Hartford began rolling out this week, Bronin added, “This case demonstrates why body cameras can be so valuable and important, both for officers’ sake and for the community’s sake, and that’s why we will soon begin outfitting our officers with bodycams…”

Police officers and government employees can be shielded from liability for reasonable mistakes on the job through a legal doctrine called “qualified immunity.” Allen was denied qualified immunity in Outlaw’s case.

Bronin reiterated the claim that Hartford is not required to pay towards Outlaw’s judgment, but indicated they hope to move the case to mediation.

“Despite the fact that the Court has found that the city has no responsibility in this case, we have made several settlement offers and we’re continuing settlement discussions. Our goal is to settle this case so that the victim is fairly compensated, while at the same time preserving the principle that taxpayers should not automatically bear the cost of conduct that is truly egregious, willful and wanton. To be clear, unless misconduct is truly egregious, willful or wanton, we will in all circumstances indemnify our officers fully and without hesitation,” he wrote.

Allen retired in 2018 and receives $88,000 in pension funds per year.

Trump aide Kellyanne Conway told CNN she was assaulted at a restaurant in Maryland last year in front of her daughter, NBC News reported.

A woman grabbed Conway from behind and shook her, Conway said in the interview, which aired Friday morning.

"Her whole face was terror and anger. She was right here, and my daughter was right there. She ought to pay for that," Conway said.

CNN reported that Mary Elizabeth Inabinett was charged in November with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct. Her lawyer denied the charge of assault to CNN; NBC News has reached out to him for comment.

A tractor-trailer has gone down an embankment at exit 13 B on Interstate 395 North in Norwich and the off-ramp is closed. 

The cleanup is expected to take time. 

No injuries are reported.

A Massachusetts man who had been wanted in connection with an armed home invasion and kidnapping in Concord earlier in the week has been taken into custody in Key West, Florida.

Julian Field, 24, of Bedford, is facing a kidnapping charge and will appear in federal court in Key West Friday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to court documents, Field broke into the home of a Concord resident at 3:45 a.m. Sunday and forced the victim at knifepoint to drive him to a train station in Connecticut, first stopping in Springfield, Massachusetts, in an attempt to buy drugs.

Once in New Haven, Connecticut, at about midnight, Field allowed the victim to leave.

The victim, who has not been identified, drove back to Massachusetts and called the police. He was not hurt.

Field was tracked to Florida, where he was arrested Thursday.

Concord Police said Monday Field is facing additional charges, including armed home invasion, armed assault on a person 60 years of age or older, armed assault in a dwelling and armed burglary with assault on occupants.

Department of Justice officials said Field could face a life sentence for the kidnapping charge.

Field will be brought to Massachusetts at a later date.

Grassy Hill Road in Orange is closed after a vehicle hit a pole and broke it, according to police. 

The road is closed between Old Grassy Hill Road and Meeting House Lane.

Naugatuck police are investigating reports of a suspicious man with a small child approaching a teenage girl and asking her to get in his car and ride with him over the bridge. 

Police said they received a report around 2:30 p.m. Thursday about a suspicious vehicle and person around the 500 block of North Church Street, near Bradbury Street. 

A 15-year-old girl told police that she was in the driveway around 2:15 p.m. to get something out of a vehicle when a man pulled up and asked her to “come into the vehicle and go for a ride with him over the bridge,” police said. 

The teen ran into her house and immediately told a family member who called police. 

The man looked like he was in his mid-30s, with an average build, short black hair and no facial hair, according to police. The teen also saw what looked like a small child in the passenger seat. 

The man was driving a “newer style” four-door black car that police said appeared to be “clean looking.” 

Anyone with information is asked to call Naugatuck Police at 203-729-5221 or the NPD Confidential Tip Line at 203-720-1010. 

It feels like Christmas in February in downtown Norwich. Filmmakers are there to shoot scenes for a Hallmark movie. 

Norwich is the setting for some scenes of "Holiday for Heroes." Scenes are also being recorded in other parts of southeastern Connecticut as well. 

“There were people everywhere. Every which direction and everyone seemed to have a plan. They seemed to know what they were doing,” John Johnson, of Griswold, said.

A Naugatuck woman who had been missing since January has been found and she is OK, according to police.

Zandra Ghiroli, 30, who is also known as Sanra Ghiroli, disappeared on Jan. 24 after leaving a friend's house on Brennan Street.

Her family told police that they feared for her safety and officers said she has an extensive medical history.

Police said Thursday night that Ghiroli was found and she was not harmed.

It’s time for baseball fans to think ahead to spring and summer. Hartford Yard Goats tickets went on sale this morning.

You can buy tickets in person at the Click It or Ticket Box Office at Dunkin’ Donuts Park.

The first 50 fans to buy tickets in person will receive a $25 Dunkin’ gift card.

Starting at noon, you can order tickets over the phone and online at www.yardgoatsbaseball.com.

The home opener will be on Thursday, April 11 at 7:05 p.m. The Yard Goats will host the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

See the full schedule here. 

“We are excited to announce that our individual game tickets will be available for our fans on February 8th, the earliest we’ve had them on sale,” Yard Goats General Manager Mike Abramson said in a statement. “Yard Goats fans are the best and most loyal fans in baseball, and we can’t wait to see them this season!”

An apparent gas leak at Woodside Intermediate School in Cromwell prompted school officials to move students to Cromwell Middle School Friday morning, according to a post on the Cromwell Public Schools' website. 

Cromwell High School Principal Frances DiFiore wrote that no one has been injured. The students are safe at the middle school.

“At this point in time there will be no pick up of students. The students will be in the middle school auditorium and gymnasium. Our primary concern is for the safety of our students. Additional information will be sent as soon as we receive it,” the online message says. 

School officials said they were working with Eversource to determine next steps.

Super Bowl LIII MVP Julian Edelman stopped by "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" to proudly show off the Lombardi Trophy and walked away with a fresh shave.

In a preview of Edelman's appearance on Friday's show, the New England Patriots wide receiver expressed gratitude to his parents for supporting his career and talked about what being named Super Bowl MVP meant to him and his family.

"Getting the MVP is kind of a win for my other team, and that's my family. Getting to experience this with them, because they've been in my corner, they've made me who I am, this is like a full family kind of win," he explained.

Host Ellen DeGeneres, who is known for her antics, surprised the three-time Super Bowl champion with the official MVP trophy before moving on to the subject of his beard, which he said he did not shave all season.

"Coach (Bill) Belichick has this thing that he says, 'Put everything in the drawer and worry about it when the season's done,' so I put my razor actually in the drawer."

"Do you think he meant razor?" DeGeneres asked.

"He said everything," Edelman replied. "He's a scary, intimidating man."

The talk show host then said she would donate $10,000 to the Boys and Girls Club if she could shave Edelman's beard. He was a bit hesitant at first, but ultimately was happy to get a fresh trim and the opportunity to be charitable. So much so that Edelman offered to match DeGeneres' donation, raising a total of $20,000 for the organization.

This makes the wide receiver the second Patriots player to trim some hair this week in the name of charity. Tom Brady got a clean shave at Gillette World Shaving Headquarters on Thursday.

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" airs at 4 p.m. ET on NBC.

A San Diego based company is accused of making millions of dollars by coercing young women into having sex on camera. 

For many of the women, including some who spoke to NBC 7 Investigates, their experience ended with thoughts of suicide, humiliation, and isolation from family and friends. 

Nearly two dozen women say what started with a response to a modeling ad on Craigslist ended with videos of them having sex posted to some of the most popular porn websites in the world, according to a lawsuit filed against the company. 

They say the three owners of the website Girls Do Porn set up an elaborate scheme using fake names, reference girls paid to lie and promises that the videos would be sold to private collectors in Australia and New Zealand, according to the lawsuit. 

In January, a State Court Judge issued a tentative ruling, stating the women’s allegations had shown that the men had likely “engaged in malice, fraud or oppression.” 

An attorney for the company rejected the allegations, telling NBC 7 Investigates the women knew what they were signing up for ahead of time. 

Attorneys for the women, however, say the scheme was hatched by owner Michael Pratt, co-owner and videographer Matthew Wolfe, and actor Ruben “Andre” Garcia to lure them into the world of amateur pornography. 

NBC 7 Investigates spoke to six women who are not plaintiffs in the case, all shared identical stories to what was laid out in the lawsuit. All six women agreed to speak with NBC 7 Investigates anonymously. None were part of the lawsuit, fearing it would cause more damage to their reputation or because they were past the statute of limitations.

How The Scheme Worked

According to court filings, the company posted modeling ads on Craigslist pages throughout the United States and Canada, linking back to one of three modeling websites: BeginModeling, ModelingGigs, and ModelingWork [dot] com. 

The ads were posted on Craigslist pages throughout North America in places such as Gainesville, Florida; Waco, Texas; Orange County, California; in Calgary, Canada as well as in San Diego. The ads called for women, ages 18-to-22, to pose as swimsuit models. 

“I had just turned 17 when I clicked on the ad,” said a Colorado woman, 23, speaking with NBC 7 Investigates. “It was definitely to broaden my shooting experience as I was trying to establish myself as a model.”

According to court documents, she was not the only girl that answered the ad before turning 18. A plaintiff in the case alleges she also communicated with the men while she was a minor, filming one day after her 18th birthday. 

“[Pratt, Garcia, and Wolfe] recruited her to fly across country for a sex video when she was a minor,” the lawsuit states. 

After the women clicked on the ad, they say they were asked to submit pictures as well as their contact information. Not long after a man, who according to court documents and former employees was Andre Garcia, contacted the women with new details about the nature of the shoot. 

Garcia told the women that the modeling job had changed. It was no longer a bikini shoot but was an offer to make up to $6,000 if the women agreed to be filmed having sex on camera. The women say the man assured them that the videos would be sold to private collectors and would not be published online. 

“They told me multiple times. What are the odds someone you know is going to walk into that one DVD store in Australia and choose that one DVD that you're on,” said one Southern California woman we interviewed. 

It was then that Garcia put them in touch with a “reference girl” who was willing to verify everything. 

The Reference Girls

“She told me it's going to be OK,” said one woman. 

“[The Reference Girl] said, ‘They're nice. It's only going to be on DVDs in New Zealand and Australia and it's not allowed in America. And it's not that big of a deal. Just be a tough girl and it'll be over before you know it.’” 

In regards to the reference girl, the woman from Colorado added, “The reference girl basically said that everything was legit, that it wasn't sex trafficking. It wasn't anything that I should be afraid of and that they made a lot of money doing that.” 

All 22 women in the lawsuit shared similar stories. Their attorney, Brian Holm, told NBC 7 Investigates that he spoke to more than 120 women who said they were featured in Girls Do Porn videos. 

A major part in convincing the women, says Holm, was the use of “reference girls.” 

But according to court documents, the reference girls were hired to do anything necessary to get the women to agree. In a court declaration, one such reference girl Amber Clark said she and others were paid to lie to the young women. 

“Garcia coached me on how to correspond with the prospective women, to gain their trust, even if that included telling lies and hiding information,” Clark stated in an August 2018 declaration. “Garcia instructed me to tell women the videos they filmed would never be released in the United State or on the internet.” 

The reference women, according to Clark’s declaration and other court documents, were paid $25 to $200 for each girl they convinced to be featured in a video. The court filings said the amount of money that was paid to each reference girl depended on how attractive the women they convinced were.  

“I don't think I would have followed through with it if she did not talk to me and text me and reassure me of her experience almost every other day,” said the Southern California woman. 

In response to NBC 7 Investigates’ questions regarding the company’s use of reference girls, including the court declarations made by former employees, the company’s attorney, Aaron Sadock said, “How one former-employee interprets the motivation of the company or its attorneys should not be taken as the gospel.” 

The Contracts and Videos

The women say when they agreed to the company’s conditions over the phone, they were then offered up to $6,000 for what the company said would be a 30-minute video shoot. 

The men bought the women an airline ticket and booked rooms at four-star hotels throughout San Diego County including the Hotel del Coronado, the Kimpton Hotel, the Hard Rock Hotel, the Hilton Bayfront, and the La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla (NBC 7 Investigates reached out to the hotels listed in the lawsuit but the hotels did not respond, offered no comment or said they don't permit these kinds of activities.) 

Upon arriving in San Diego, according to the women who spoke to NBC 7 Investigates and court documents, the women were picked up by employees for the company. Those employees were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) forbidding them from making any mention of the Girls Do Porn website or the video’s distribution online. 

According to her deposition, Val Moser worked as an Administrative Assistant for Girls Do Porn for more than three years. She said she was ”told specifically not to answer where the footage would end up,” even though she was aware the videos would be published online. 

In response to NBC 7’s questions, Sadock said non-disclosure agreements are used, “in all types of businesses.” 

When they arrived at the hotel, the women say they were given drugs and alcohol. 

“We smoked and we drank from the second we got to the [location] until after we stopped shooting,” one of the women told NBC7 Investigates. 

Before the video shoot started, the women said they were given a contract to sign with only minutes to review it ahead of time. 

“The contract was the size of a good book and they rushed me through it,” said one woman in an interview. “They did not let me look at it for more than five minutes because they kept rushing me saying we're out of time we're out of time.” 

According to the company’s attorney and court filings, the contract proves the women knew what they were getting into. 

The women said the contract made no mention of the Girls Do Porn website. 

“The models...all signed contracts agreeing to shoot pornographic videos and made statements on video agreeing the phonographic videos could be used in any manner the producer wished to use them,” Sadock told NBC 7 Investigates. 

Once filming began, the women said the shoots lasted up to six or seven hours. The sex, they said, was painful and if they tried to stop, the men would tell them they wouldn’t be paid. 

“I was in a room with two men and they both kind of teamed up on me and I didn't feel safe and like, I could leave on my own will,” a Southern California woman told NBC 7. 

When the shoots ended, many said the men did not pay them the full amount they were promised. 

Former employee Moser testified that 50-percent of the women complained to her that they did not receive the agreed upon amount. 

“It was a devastating feeling,” said one woman. “I felt like I was lied to. I felt like I was definitely taken advantage of. I felt stupid even though I know it wasn't my fault for falling for something that was so well put together.” 

“I felt humiliated exhausted drained and I just sold my soul. It was the lowest point I've ever had,” the Southern California woman said.

The Aftermath 

The women said a month or so after the shoots, the videos were posted on the Girls Do Porn website, as well as popular adult websites such as PornHub, the fourth most-visited website behind Wikipedia, Netflix, and Microsoft. 

Holm said his research found all of the videos uploaded to PornHub have “over one-billion views.” 

Women who spoke with NBC 7 said as soon as the videos were posted online, their family, classmates, high school friends, church members, and college deans received text messages and spam emails with links to their videos and gifs of them having sex. 

According to the lawsuit, personal information about women, including addresses, their parent’s names and addresses, as well as employers were posted on online forums. 

“I was getting text messages from people saying, ‘Make her go viral,’” the Southern California woman told NBC 7. “I was just being completely harassed on every social media site and text messages from random numbers harassing me. People were sending me gifs of myself and me just kind of went into hiding.” 

She said she immediately deleted all of her social media profiles and at one point, someone tried to blackmail her. 

“They sent links to my videos to everybody I know on Facebook. I had to make sure that my place of work wasn't anywhere on the internet where anyone could ever find me because I was fearful that some crazy person would try and find me.” 

Attorney Holm said he spoke to one woman who had a screenshot of her having sex taped to her dad’s front door. 

When the women tried to call the owners of Girls Do Porn, the company’s owners would, “block their numbers, threaten them, or have Panakos Law, APC, and Aaron Sadock use the legal process to threaten them,” according to the lawsuit. 

Sadock would not respond to NBC 7 Investigates’ questions about this specific allegation and denied his clients’ involvement in sending out links to the videos. 

The women said after their videos were posted online, some dropped out of college, lost their jobs or were kicked out of their home. 

One woman NBC 7 spoke with said her parents stopped talking to her for a year after the video featuring her went online. 

“I don't want to see another young girl fall victim into any of this,” she said. “It's horrible, it's something I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.” 

In June 2016 four women filed their lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court. In less than a year, 18 additional women came forward. 

The trial was set for March 8, 2018, but on the day the judge issued a tentative ruling finding merit to the claims that the men engaged in “malice, fraud or oppression,” Pratt filed for bankruptcy. The case has since been put on hold. 

In the bankruptcy filing, however, more information emerged on the 36-year-old Pratt’s finances.

In subsequent filings, Pratt estimated his salary to be over $60,000 a month. Pratt also declared more than $134,000 in back taxes.

In a statement to NBC 7, Sadock reaffirmed the company’s position that all of the women signed a contract. 

“The models...signed contracts agreeing to shoot pornographic videos and made statements on video agreeing the pornographic videos could be used in any manner the producer wished to use them,” wrote Sadock. “Some models regret the choice they made. But those models were free to decide whether to star in a pornographic video or not. Nobody forced them.” 

To read Sadock’s full statement, click here. 

Dr. Shira Tarrant is a professor of Women’s Studies and Sexuality at Cal State Long Beach and has written books on the economics of pornography. Tarrant told NBC 7 Investigates she found several issues with the company’s practices as described in court filings. 

“This is different from the legal adult industry, where legitimate contracts are entered into and full consent is given. There’s also the issue of drugs or alcohol. If someone is drunk or high they are legally unable to consent to sex or to sign contracts. These are serious problems.” 

The woman from Colorado told NBC 7 she hopes no other young women make the same mistake she made. 

“It definitely creates a lot of psychological issues when you go through something like this. And I just want to make sure that this doesn't happen to anybody else.”

NBC 7 Investigates spent the past year reviewing court documents, interviewing women featured in Girls Do Porn videos and attorneys, as well as reviewing other public records for this story.

West Haven police have arrested a suspect in bomb threats made against West Haven High School.

On Thursday afternoon, police arrested 18-year-old Mariah Donavon, of West Haven. Police said she was enrolled as a student in the West Haven school system when the threats were made

She has been charged with three counts of breach of peace in the first-degree, according to police.

Police said the first incident was on Dec. 20.

Two West Haven high school students reported that they had gotten text messages that referenced blowing the school up, police said.

The second incident was on the morning of Jan. 15 when a bomb threat was left on the West Haven High School’s voice messaging system, according to police.

Investigators identified Donovan as a suspect and said she was held on a bond.

Police said no students or administration were in any danger.

Members of the New Britain Common Council are calling for a freeze on Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce funds and for the mayor to reveal all city money provided to the organization until the president of the chamber steps down amid backfire for a controversial comment on Facebook.

Tim Stewart, the former New Britain mayor and current president of the Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce, was put on administrative leave earlier this week after posting what some are calling a misogynistic Facebook comment during the State of the Union Address on Tuesday night. 

During President Trump's address, Stewart commented, "**tches in heat," below a photo of some female Democratic lawmakers who attended the State of the Union dressed in white in a show of solidarity.

Stewart issued an apology for the comment on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon.

"My comment was wrong and in poor taste in response to a particular time during the speech that I took offense to, Stewart said in his post. "This in no way excuses my behavior and I am deeply sorry to not only the women in my life but to all women for the remark."

He resigned from his positions on the New Britain School Building Committee and Mattabassett District Commission at the request of Mayor Erin Stewart, his daughter.

Several people, including the chairman of the Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce, condemned Tim Stewart’s comment.

"I could not be more disappointed in the social media post made last night by Tim Stewart," Gennaro Bizzaro said in a statement. "His choice of words was inexcusable and has no place in modern civil discourse."

The City of New Britain Common Council on Friday released a statement saying members of the council have put forward a petition requesting the mayor reveal all City money, directly and/or indirectly, provided to the Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce.

It goes on to say a resolution has been placed on the agenda for the Feb. 13 Common Council meeting to freeze all funds “until the immediate termination or resignation of Tim Stewart as chamber president.”

The meeting will be held in council chambers on the second floor of city hall, at 27 West Main St. Public participation will begin at 7 p.m.

Glastonbury police rescued an injured Barred Owl Thursday night. 

Glastonbury police said officers responded to Eastbury Hill Road just after 9 p.m. after someone reported an injured owl was in the road. 

It had a broken wing and police believe it was hit by a car. 

The animal control officer brought the owl to Bolton Veterinary Hospital. 

Officials from the hospital said the owl is in the isolation ward and will be given to a rehabilitator as soon as possible.

New Britain police have found a woman who was reported missing and was believed to be with the suspect in the shooting death of another woman. The suspect is still missing, but police said they have made two arrests in connection with the homicide case.

Family members reported 31-year-old Virgen Maria Figueroa missing on Tuesday and told authorities they had not heard from her since around 5 p.m. on Monday. On Friday, police said Virgen Maria Figueroa has been found and is safe. She walked into the police station, police said during a news conference.

Police said she was believed to be with 42-year-old Benjamin Morales, the suspect in the death of Alice Marie Figueroa. Police have said Morales and Alice Figueroa were dating and have children together.

Alice Figueroa and Virgen Figueroa are not related, according to police.

Police continue to search for Morales, who is considered armed and dangerous.

Police said they believe Virgen Figueroa and Morales were dating. They do not believe she was involved in the homicide and said they were concerned for her safety given the allegations against Morales.

Morales, who is 5-feet-6 and has brown hair and brown eyes, is known to frequent New Britain and Hartford and police warn that he is considered to be armed and dangerous and should not be approached.

He might still be in the Hartford area and driving an early model red Subaru Forester that is not registered. 

Police said they have a warrant charging him with murder.

Two other people have been arrested in connection with the murder and police said both suspects are related to Benjamin Morales.

Arrest warrants were served Thursday on 18-year-old Odalys Morales and 48-year-old Ramon Morales, both of New Britain. Police said they believe both misled them and/or provided assistance to the suspect.

Odalys Morales was charged with interfering and Ramon Morales was charged with hindering prosecution in the second degree and interfering.

Odalys was held overnight on a $100,000 bond and Ramon was a held on a $250,000 bond. They are due in court today and the warrants have been sealed, according to police.

Anyone with information is asked to call the New Britain Police Department at 860-826-3000 or leave an anonymous tip by calling 860-826-3199.

Trump aide Kellyanne Conway reported to police that she was assaulted at a Mexican restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland, last year in front of her daughter.

A woman grabbed Conway from behind, shook her and shouted "shame on you," Conway told police and CNN.

"Her whole face was terror and anger. She was right here, and my daughter was right there. She ought to pay for that," Conway said in a CNN interview published Friday.

Mary Elizabeth Inabinett, of Chevy Chase, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and second-degree assault in connection with the alleged attack on Conway, according to court records. Inabinett's lawyer said no assault took place and his client was just expressing her personal opinions.

Conway was at a birthday event with her daughter at Uncle Julio's Mexican Restaurant in Bethesda on Oct. 14, 2018 when another diner approached her and started yelling, according to a police report.

Conway told police she initially thought another partygoer was trying to give her a hug but she turned around to find Inabinett screaming and making aggressive hand gestures. She also told police the woman shook her for a few seconds and yelled at her for up to 10 minutes.

Inabinett was yelling "shame on you," according to a police report. Conway's daughter filmed some of the encounter, the report said.

The restaurant manager told police that Inabinett was separated from Conway and taken out of the restaurant before she went into a parking garage across the street.

Police pulled receipts from the restaurant, then found the suspect's name and photos. On Nov. 20, Conway went to the police station in Bethesda and identified Inabinett as the alleged assailant.

Inabinett faces charges that could carry fines or jail time — including a maximum sentence of 10 years in the assault.

Inabinett's attorney, William Alden McDaniel, Jr., denied that his client assaulted Conway.

"Ms. Inabinett saw Kellyanne Conway, a public figure, in a public place, and exercised her First Amendment right to express her personal opinions," he wrote in an email sent to NBC Washington. "She did not assault Ms. Conway. The facts at trial will show this to be true, and show Ms. Conway’s account to be false."

Her trial date is set for March.

Conway is the latest official from the Trump administration to meet hostility or protest while dining in D.C.-area restaurants. In June, as the Trump administration was scrutinized for separating parents and children who crossed the southern border, protesters chanting "Shame!" disrupted U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's meal at MXDC Cocina Mexicana. She ultimately left the restaurant.

In July, a woman carrying her son approached former EPA head Scott Pruit at a cafe in D.C. and asked him to resign.

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked by staff in June to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. Sanders said she "politely left."

CORRECTION (Feb. 8, 2019, 9:23 a.m.): An earlier version of this story briefly reversed Inabinett's first and middle names and did not accurately reflect the length of time that the alleged shaking lasted, according to a police report.

Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón's "Roma," a darling of the 2019 award season with 10 Academy Award nominations and two wins in the Golden Globes, is an intimate story of Cuarón's childhood told through the eyes of an indigenous woman who works as a nanny to a middle-class family in Mexico City. The family drama also provides a gripping glimpse of Mexican society at the cusp of great social change in the early 1970s, a time of migration, urbanization and cultural transformation.

"The movie is to a great extent a story about modernization," said Claudio Lomnitz, professor of anthropology at the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University. "We see two rural girls come from Oaxaca who have moved to the city. They are indigenous and they speak Mixtec, but they also speak Spanish, they go to the movies, they have sex."

Almost 50 years have passed from the time in which the movie is set. How does today's Mexico compare with the Mexico of Cuarón's childhood with regard to the more disturbing social issues it portrays, like violence and social inequality? NBC spoke to four researchers on Mexico from the fields of history, sociology and anthropology.

More Violence After the Drug War Begins
"Mexico is a country that hurts," said María Amalia Gracia, sociologist at the Department of Society and Culture of Colegio de la Frontera del Sur, a research center located on the southern border of Mexico. For Gracia, violence in Mexico today has reached unimaginable levels. "It is surprising that people can continue to live in those conditions," she said.

The Corpus Christi Massacre of 1971 is the backdrop to a frightening scene in "Roma," the moment when the film's pregnant protagonist, Cleo, discovers that the father of her child is part of a government paramilitary group.

The massacre and the paramilitaries in the film represented the dominant form of violence of the day: centrally directed repressive violence, known as "The Dirty War" that took place under the orders of the presidency and the Ministry of Interior. It was a war that the country's authoritarian one-party regime was fighting, indiscriminately, against two enemies: a growing urban middle class demanding democratization, and a left-wing student movement featuring guerrilla groups, Lomnitz said.

"Mexico is a much freer country today, but it is also a much more violent country," Lomnitz said. The new violence is "less heroic, less easy to romanticize."

It is no longer about struggles for justice or freedom, against a repressive society and regime. The now prevalent drug-related spike in violence has its roots in 2006, the year Mexico's Drug War formally began.

Between the early 1970s and the eve of the Drug War, violence in Mexico had decreased significantly, Lomnitz said. In 2007, homicide rates (9.3 per 100,000 people) were not much higher than in the United States (5.7 per 100,000). But by 2018, they reached 25 per 100,000. At the beginning of the Drug War, the government's official take was that the death toll was to a large extent, a result of organizations killing each other off in turf wars. But recent studies by Mexico's Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) suggest that Mexico's military and federal police have executed a substantial proportion of the 150,000 Drug War-related killings. 

"Much of the violence today also comes from local governments, which are often in the control of criminal organizations," Lomnitz said. The Iguala Massacre of 2014, where 43 students from a rural teachers' college were taken and disappeared, is an example of this new type of violence, as is the fact that during the 2018 federal elections, more than 100 local candidates were assassinated.

"The closing of the U.S.-Mexican border is an untold part of this story," Lomnitz said. As moving across the border became more difficult in the 1990s, the firepower and discipline of organized crime trafficking with Colombian cocaine grew. It triggered an increase in the concentration of criminal money, wealth and violence. More recently, powerful Chinese criminal organizations have partnered with Mexican ones to produce methamphetamine in Mexico, destined for the North American market. This development is furthering the concentration of violent criminal power.

Tensions Over Land Dampened by Modernization
Conflicts over land come up various times in "Roma." The government takes away land belonging to Cleo's mother. A man sitting in a bar has lost a family member due to a land dispute. A family of landowners exhibits on its farmhouse wall, the stuffed head of a pet dog that had been poisoned during another land dispute. And the New Year's party being held by that same family is eerily interrupted by arson in the surrounding woods.

"Low-scale agrarian violence is very old in Mexico," Lomnitz said, adding that it goes back to colonial times. And after the land reforms of the 1920s and 1930s, when the countryside was made up of small scale farmers, conflicts sprung up between towns, between smallholders, and between smallholders and larger landowners.

Conflict over land began to recede in the 1980s due to an increasing migration to the city, which led to fewer land disputes in the countryside. "Roma" shows the beginning of this migration. Cleo visits, in search of her baby's father, a shantytown located just outside of Mexico City limits that was beginning to be occupied by squatters, migrants from the countryside. Today, this place, known as Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl with a population of 1.1 million, is the 10th largest city in Mexico.

A Continuing Racial Divide
Yalitza Aparicio, the first indigenous woman to be Oscar-nominated for best leading actress, plays Cleo, the servant of a white family. She is treated with affection and care, but the difference in social status is enforced at all times, in both explicit and subtle ways. For example, while cuddling with the family in front of the TV, she is abruptly ordered to fetch tea for "the doctor."

"She is very lucky," said Kevin Terraciano, professor of history and director of the Latin American Institute at UCLA. Indigenous servant women are not always treated well.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú has spoken of how vulnerable she felt living with a family as a young woman. Sexual advances and mistreatment is an underlying possibility.

"In the last 10 years, there has been increased awareness of the problems faced by domestic workers," Gracia said, "but racism and behaviors underscoring inequality continue to exist. Results of our most recent research on domestic workers are eloquent on the problems of discrimination and abuse."

Some progress has been made at the legislative level in recognizing the rights of the indigenous population. Laws protecting the right to their languages and culture, and to self-empowerment have been enacted since the turn of the century. A rebellion of indigenous people in the 1990s, known as the Zapatista rebellion, in which paramilitary death squads massacred indigenous people, marked the beginning of increased awareness. Since then, indigenous communities have also made progress in "the creation of autonomous communities, which give them more direct representation over their land and resources," Terraciano said. But it is still common to see indigenous women working as servants. And the indigenous populations remain extremely poor.

"Here in Mexico being indigenous gives you a particular social status. There is a marginalization, a social discrimination that we Mexicans know by the social norms and social codes with which we are educated," said Jesus Ruvalcaba, a researcher at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City. "There has been some progress, but not much."

Being "indio" in Mexico continues to be a stigma. And the indigenous people feel it and know it, Terraciano said. "After independence from Spain, the leaders of the new nation saw these traditional cultures as obstacles." Since then, governments have used laws and force to dissolve native communities and mainstream indigenous peoples. "Today, leaders continue to speak of the 'Indian problem.'"