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Coast Guard Cadets Punished After Investigation Into Cheating

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Three cadets could be removed from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and others will be punished in connection with a cheating scandal, authorities said.

The Coast Guard Academy is recommending that three cadets be removed and said others will face punishment after the investigation into "unauthorized collaboration on online quizzes."

The alleged "violations of the collaboration policy" occurred were in the Ships and Maritime Systems class during the fall of 2015.

"We are greatly disappointed in the behavior of the cadets implicated in this investigation and the poor decisions they made. Our cadets are taught from the day they arrive that violations of the honor concept will not be tolerated and that their choices have consequences," the academy said in a statement.

The cadets who were involved "face various punishments including restriction, marching tours, work hours, and a lengthy honor remediation program," according to the academy, which added that "three cadets have been recommended for disenrollment."



Photo Credit: AP

'Build That Wall': Students Paint Trump Support on School Rock

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Some residents and students were offended when they woke up to see "Build That Wall" spray-painted on the Westbrook High School's spirit rock on the day of the state's primary.

On Tuesday, the superintendent and some staff, which is painted every-so often by students, was coated in blue paint with with "Trump 2016" and "Build That Wall" written in red, presumably in support of the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The superintendent said the school has identified the three male students responsible and have conducted interviews with them and their parents. The students said they thought painting the rock in support of Trump would be funny, the superintendent Pat Ciccone said. 

Due to the political nature of the paint job, some people and students were offended by the message, Ciccone said. The superintendent said the school and district does not advertise for one candidate over another.

The rock was covered with a tarp and later spray painted to cover up the student's paint job. 

Trump, even as recently as his trip to Connecticut, has said a number of times that he wishes to build a wall in order to keep people from Mexico to enter the United States. 

The school is now taking restorative steps to the address the issue, Ciccone said.

There is no evidence of maliciousness, according to the district. 



Photo Credit: NBC Connecticut

Police Arrest Woman After Standoff in Coventry

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Police arrested a woman after a standoff in Coventry Tuesday afternoon.

Officers responded to 234 Lake Street just before 3 p.m. after a report that the woman pointed a rifle at a man at that address.

Police found the woman, Debra Bernier, 57, barricaded in a camper, according to authorities.

After a standoff, the Bernier came out of the camper and police took her into custody, police said.

Bernier was charged with second-degree reckless endangerment, assault on a police officer, second-degree threatening, second-degree breach of peace and interfering with police.

She was held on $10,000 bond and is expected in Rockville Superior Court on Wednesday.

No one was injured in the incident.



Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Woman Supplied Minors With Booze, Allowed Drugs: Police

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A 46-year-old Woodbury woman is accused of buying alcohol for minors to drink during parties at her home and looking the other way when they did drugs.

The arrest warrant for Christine Nessel said officers have visited her home since 2008 to investigate reports of underage drinking parties, loud music, drug sales and criminal mischief and the incident that led to the charges happened early on the morning of Thursday, March 24.

"At first it was weird and cool because Christine was a parent allowing kids to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana but then it got scary," one juvenile witness told police during the investigation.

Three children live at Nessel’s home and police found four to six teens outside when they responded to the house just after 3 a.m. on March 24. Nessel told police that it was a sleepover and no one was drinking alcohol, police said. According to the calendar for Region 14 Schools, school was not in session on March 24 of March 25.

Later in the day, the guardian of a 15-year-old boy called police with concerns that he’d been drinking and taking pills.

When police spoke with the teen, he told them that he took anti-anxiety drugs and drank beer while Nessel was at the house, according to the arrest warrant.

On April 1, police went to Nonnewaug High School to investigate drugs and officers found texts from Nessel on a teen’s phone asking if there was anything illegal in her room that needed to be cleaned up before the Department of Children and Families showed up. One text also informed the student that Nessel removed the alcoholic beverage Four Loko, according to the arrest warrant.

Police spoke with several witnesses and one told police that minors drank at the house and did drugs, including Xanax, marijuana, Adderall, LSD, Konopin and muscle relaxers and Nessel doesn’t do or say anything about it, according to the arrest warrant.

Another teen told officers that teens had given Nessel money and a list of alcoholic beverages they wanted and she went out and bought the items for them.

In another interview, a teen said beer was present at a party at Nessel’s house, everyone was playing beer pong and smoking cigarettes, some teens were sniffing Adderall and it was weird that she was sharing a drink and making small talk.

When police arrived around 3:30 a.m. because someone threw up over the deck, the officers weren’t allowed in the house and everyone inside turned off the lights and whispered while Nessel spoke with police, the teen said, according to the arrest warrant application.

Other teens said Nessel bought children alcohol and didn’t say anything when she saw children smoking marijuana, while another said the minors sometimes took Nessel’s prescription drugs.

Nessel has been charged with one count of risk of injury to a minor and five counts of permitting a monor to possess alcohol.

She was released on a $5,000 bond.

The police report says police contacted her, but she did not want to speak with police.

NBC Connecticut went to Nessel’s home and no one there and no attorney is listed for her on the online docket.



Photo Credit: NBCConnecticut.com

28 State Employees Given Layoff Notices Tuesday

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More state workers were handed layoff notices on Tuesday.

According to the Governor's Office, 28 employees received the notices. Twenty employees from the Department of Correction and eight employees from the Department of Mental health and Addiction services were laid off.

Those employees were relieved of their duties at the end of the day.

So far, 546 total layoff notices have gone out to state workers.

Primary Results Reported in a New Way on Election Night

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Across Connecticut, poll workers reported to the Secretary of the State that turnout had been, "steady."

The town of South Windsor reported turnout approaching 42 percent by midday, while some poll workers in Bridgeport had said they had seen far fewer voters on Tuesday.

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said the highest turnout recorded for a presidential primary was back in 2008 when then-Senator Barack Obama upset former Senator Hillary Clinton in her first run for president. That year, 51 percent of Connecticut voters turned out to participate in the process. Merrill said this year, 40 percent could be an achievable figure.

One new element to voting this year is a technology upgrade for registrars of voters across Connecticut is an online election management system.

Taxpayers foot the bill for the $400,000 system designed for election officials to input results through a central portal that then appears on the Secretary of the State's website.

"It is a field test" said Merrill. "People may think they have their hands full doing other things. We very strongly encouraged them to use it and I think it is pretty easy to use, so you know, by November, everyone is going to be using it.”

The system is meant to provide faster unofficial results. Connecticut is known for having among the slowest election reporting in the country as a result of having more than 300 election officials in 169 cities and towns that each have their own election offices.

During the 2014 race for governor, party officials had results long before the public and in the morning several towns had not yet reported unofficial results.

One town not participating with the new software is Naugatuck. Both the Republican and Democrat Registrars of Voters decided to not use the software in the presidential primary and wait instead until later in the summer or even the fall.

"Our town has decided not to do this. We’re still going to fax the results in but we will be ready to go for possibly the August primary and definitely November" said Matt Katera, the Republican Registrar in Naugatuck.

Katera said the town has had its hands full and that reporting results won't be an issue.

"It’s not real time as has been reported" Katera cautioned. "It might speed things up by ten or 15 minutes. We’ll still have our results in by 9, 9:30 p.m.”

Other registrars are excited about the new software.

Linda Cuntrera, the Republican Registrar in Newington, says the new program will be better for voters because they'll find out results faster than ever.

“You’re going to get the results so quickly and it’s going to right to the secretary of the state and as you get a district done you can just put it in and the secretary of state will get it and it will be right there online.”



Photo Credit: AP and Getty Images

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: 2 Arrested After Brawl at Mass. Denny's

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Leominster, Massachusetts, police responded to a large fight at a Denny's Restaurant on Commercial Road early Saturday morning.

Officers responded to a call informing them chairs were being used as weapons.

According to the department, the restaurant manager decided to close early to get people out of the building.

Once police arrived, they tried to disperse the crowd when they noticed three men behind the counter.

An officer told them to leave, but the men began to argue with the officer.

Police say 22-year-old Luis Rosa became combative and spat at the officers. When they attempted to place Rojas under arrest, he resisted, they say.

"As you can see on the video, he resisted," said Leominster Police Capt. Michael Ciccolini. "Officers had to struggle to take him down to the ground."

Officers took Rojas to the ground, forced his hands behind his back, and were able to place handcuffs on him.

Rojas is charged with assault and battery.

While officers were trying to clear the crowd, 24-year-old Brandon Sanchez attempted to try to open the door of the cruiser Rojas was in.

"He fought, they fell to the ground with him, and after a few minutes, they were both able to get him into custody by placing his arms behind his back and handcuffing him," Ciccolini said.

Sanchez denied doing anything and started flailing his arms around when officers took him to the ground and handcuffed him.

Sanchez was placed into another cruiser and taken into custody.

It's still unclear what led to the initial fight, but in the video, one man can be heard saying another man came into his booth.

Police say the entire midnight shift was dispatched to the restaurant to get things under control.

The incident remains under investigation.



Photo Credit: Leominster Police Department
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New Haven Celebrates Signing Day for Graduating Seniors

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New Haven joined hundreds of cities across the country Tuesday afternoon that participated in National College Signing Day.

It is part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher initiative, inspiring graduating seniors to continue their education in college.

“High school has been quite an experience and it feels amazing that all the hard work has paid off,” Wengel Kifle said, before announcing she’ll be attending Middlebury College.

No longer just for college athletes, this signing day was a milestone for Michael Rodriguez from New Haven.

“I’m attending Connecticut College in the fall,” he said, becoming the first member of his family to commit to a four-year college. "I’m putting a lot of stress on myself I have to make a lot of people proud, but I’m glad that I’m making that move."

Rodriguez was among 20 graduating seniors declaring where they are headed next during a ceremony at New Haven’s City Hall.

“And I will be attending the university of Connecticut, majoring in pre-kinesiology,” Taylor Brooks announced.

Brooks told NBC Connecticut she’s always wanted to be a Husky.

“My heart has been set on UConn since I was a freshman,” she said. “Because it’s always been this big school everyone talks about and I just love how it’s in its own city.”

Brooks is one of this year’s recipients of a New Haven Promise scholarship, which covers full tuition for state universities and up to $2,500 for Connecticut’s private colleges.

“My brother, he set the bar really high,” Brook said. “He got his master’s so I’ll be hopefully obtaining my PHD in kinesiology to be a physical therapist.”

The New Haven Promise Scholarship is funded by Yale University, Yale-New Haven Hospital, the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven and Wells Fargo.

Qualifications are a 3.0 GPA, completing 40 hours of community service and having a good attendance record.



Photo Credit: NBC Connecticut

Child Shot Driver in Wisconsin

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A 26-year-old woman was killed while driving on a highway in Wisconsin after witnesses say a child in the back seat of her car shot her.

The incident happened around 10:30 a.m. on Highway 175 just north of Miller Park in Milwaukee Tuesday.

"Initial witness accounts indicate that a child in the back seat of the vehicle got ahold of a gun and discharged the firearm, sending a single bullet into the driver’s back," the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

The driver was found pulseless and not breathing. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Southbound lanes of the highway were closed for several hours, but reopened by 2 p.m.



Photo Credit: TMJ4

Cops' Racist Texts Released

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The San Francisco Public Defender on Tuesday released a number of racist and homophobic text messages sent by a San Francisco police officer mired in the latest scandal rocking the San Francisco Police Department.

Jeff Adachi said that the bigoted messages exchanged between three San Francisco police officers may affect at least 207 criminal cases, including three murder cases.

Adachi released text messages from former SFPD officer Jason Lai after his office received them from SFPD on Friday in connection to a robbery case Lai was investigating.

Two other current SFPD officers — Curtis Liu and Keith Ybaretta — were also named by prosecutors as being involved in the texting scandal. Adachi said that his office didn’t have their messages. San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that their messages were equally reprehensible.

"It’s time for officers to speak up when their colleagues exhibit this kind of bigotry," Adachi said. "It is corroding community trust and making it harder for good officers to do their jobs."

The messages, which are rampant with racial and sexual slurs, criticize African Americans, Latinos, Indians and the LGBT community, Adachi said.

According to Adachi, Lai compares black people to "barbarians" and "a pack of wild animals on the loose." Adachi's statement said that he used a Cantonese slang for blacks, writing: "Bunch of hock gwais shooting each other. Too bad none of them died. One less to worry about."

Another text read: "I hate that beaner, but I think the n-- is worse."

Another one reads: "Indian ppl are disgusting," while a third message says: "Burn down walgreens and kill the bums."

"It is chilling how casually former officer Lai dehumanizes the citizens he was sworn to serve,” Adachi said. "He wished violence upon the very people he was being paid to protect and none of his colleagues turned him in."

This is the second texting scandal to mire the city's police department in recent years — the first one involving five officers who sent racist and homophobic texts between 2011 and 2012, was revealed during a police corruption trial.

Suhr said that his department had provided the text messages to the Public Defender's office after accessing cell phone records during the murder investigation.

"The department acted immediately by suspending these officers and recommending them to the Police Commission for disciplinary action," Suhr said.

Suhr said that four police officers were involved in this particular text messaging scandal, and three of them were behind the texts released Tuesday. All three voluntarily left the department, and a fourth one is currently appearing before the Police Commission.

"There is no room in the SFPD for anyone who holds this kind of discriminatory views, no tolerance ... Anytime an officer presents him or herself this way they will be gone," Suhr said.

When asked by a reporter if he was going to resign, Suhr said no.

"I plan to move the department forward," he said. "We're better than this ...99.9 percent of this police department is feeling the same way I am, betrayed by people who wear the same uniform."

CNN was able to obtain some of the text messages before they were released by the Public Defender's office.

Lai’s attorney Dan Nobles told CNN that the texts were “not reflective of who he is" and that "there is no evidence he carried out any of those sentiments as an officer."

"He was well liked and well loved on his beat,"he said.

The text messages were revealed after police investigated a rape accusation against Lai, who was charged last month with two misdemeanor counts of unlawful possession of criminal history information and four misdemeanor counts of misuse of confidential Department of Motor Vehicles information.

Lai is currently free on bail.

"It would be naive to believe these officers’ bigotry was reserved solely for text messages," Adachi said. "It is a window into the biases they harbored. It likely influenced who they stopped, who they searched, who they arrested, and how they testified in criminal trials."

When asked about disciplinary action against the officers, Suhr said there was no discipline more severe than being separated from the department.

Suhr said that the entire police department would undergo bias training with help from the Department of Justice by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, activists are holding an ongoing hunger strike and are calling for Suhr to be fired. Suhr in response has said he has no intention of leaving the police department.

Read the texts:



Photo Credit: SFPD

'Haunted' LA Jail Set for Makeover

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A dingy former Los Angeles city jail, once home to Al Capone, the site of numerous film and TV shoots and the subject of urban legend, is set for a makeover as city officials are asking developers for ideas on how to revamp it.

City officials published a notice seeking input for the Lincoln Heights Jail, a 24,000-square foot Art Deco-style building wedged between the LA River and West Avenue 19 north of downtown. Interested developers are expected to respond with ideas by May 13.

Built for $5 million in 1927, it held thousands of scofflaws, drunks, petty thieves and murderers throughout its more than 34 years as a "gray bar motel."

Deirdre Capone is all for the idea of remaking a building where her grand uncle once bunked while being processed out of the prison system after serving time on his now infamous tax evasion conviction.

"I kinda like some of that old stuff restored," said Deirdre Capone, who wrote, "Uncle Al Capone — The Untold Story from Inside His Family." "When I was a kid it was, 'George Washington was here. George Washington visited there,'" she said. "Today, it's, 'Al Capone lived here. Al Capone stopped here.'

"Maybe I'll come and visit him."

The building, described by then-LA County Undersheriff James Downey in a 1967 Van Nuys Valley News article as a "warehouse with bars on the windows," has long been eyed for redevelopment. A state prison, trade technical high school, live-work lofts, and even a "jail-to-table" urban rooftop garden were among the ideas.

But its storied history, city landmark status, and heavy neglect make it a tough sell, said Adrian Scott Fine, the director of advocacy for the Los Angeles Conservancy.

A scene in "LA Confidential" was shot there dramatizing an incident dubbed "Bloody Christmas" when LA police officers assaulted Latinos in 1951.

During World War II, police jailed Zoot Suit rioters there after violence broke out between U.S. sailors, Marines and Latinos, recognizable in their oversized "zoot suits" matching fedoras and pointy shoes.

Police also jailed people "over suspicions regarding their sexual orientation," leading to the creation of a separate wing for gay prisoners, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy.

By the early 1950s the inmate population swelled to 2,800 inmates, prompting a jail expansion in 1951.

The jail was decommissioned in 1965 when city and county officials determined it would be more cost effective to close it and place inmates in the nearby county jail.

It sat in limbo for years as officials struggled with how to reuse it. In the years after the jail closed it was used for courtrooms and overflow detention. It had one tenant for a brief period in 1970, a sausage maker that leased out the kitchen, according to the Valley News.

Today, ghost hunters claim they can hear the echoes from the past while walking through its cellblocks.

"This place is one of my favorite places," said Rob Wlodarski, a paranormal investigator, in a video about the Lincoln Heights Jail. "We've heard doors slam. We have had females scream. We've seen at least three apparitions of a guard we call Lady in White. There isn't a time that we've come in here that we didn't have something happen."



Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Los Angeles Conservancy

Sweden Warned of Possible ISIS Attack Plot

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Iraq's government has warned Sweden that ISIS may be planning a terror attack on that country's capital of Stockholm.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to NBC News, said Iraq found intelligence "about an ISIS plan to target the Swedish capital Stockholm," involving seven or eight Iraqi citizens who were former members of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"Those ISIS militants are Iraqis, and were able to arrive to Sweden in 2015 with those thousands who emigrate from different countries to Europe," the official said.

The U.S. Embassy in Stockholm said Tuesday it "has confirmed that Swedish Police are actively investigating a potential terror threat against Sweden."



Photo Credit: Getty Images

Trump: Clinton Playing Woman Card

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Coming off a huge win on Tuesday night, Donald Trump said he has all but clinched the Republican nomination, NBC News reported. 

"I consider myself the presumptive nominee, absolutely," Trump said at a press conference after winning all five state primaries held on Tuesday by crushing margins.

Turning to the general election, he predicted he would "beat Hillary [Clinton] so easily" and even compete for deep blue states like New York, despite trailing Clinton nationally in every recent poll, often by wide margins.

"The only card she has is the woman's card," Trump said. "If Hillary Clinton were a man I don't think she'd get five percent of the vote."

Trump isn't actually the presumptive nominee yet, but he is doing everything he needs to get there.



Photo Credit: AP

Storm Expands After Bringing Tornadoes, Hail, High Winds

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Storms that hit parts of the Plains, Midwest and Texas with reported tornadoes, baseball-sized hail and high winds was forecast to expand into the Mississippi Valley and South on Wednesday.

The sprawling system brought five reported twisters across Missouri, Kansas, Indiana and Texas, as well as hail — the largest reportedly the size of a grapefruit — across an arc from the Lone Star State all the way to West Virginia, according to The National Weather Service.

Wind gusts of 90 mph and above were recorded in Sherman, Texas, and at Oklahoma's Will Rogers World Airport. Flights appeared to continue largely uninterrupted there, but more than two dozen cancellations were recorded by FlightAware at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Tuesday.



Photo Credit: AP

NJ Officer Saves Man From Jumping

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A New Jersey police officer tackled a suicidal man seconds before he was going to leap off a bridge, dashcam video of the tense encounter shows. 

Riverdale police Sgt. Greg Bogert pulled up to the disturbed man on Route 287 near exit 53 at about 11:30 a.m. Monday after multiple reports of a man walking on the ledge of the bridge. 

The man was walking in front of a car on the shoulder of the busy road when Bogert pulled up to the scene, the video shows. 

"I remember saying, 'it's not worth it, stay calm,'" Bogert told NBC 4 New York Tuesday.

When Bogert asked the man a question and tried to calm him down, the man sprinted for the ledge of the bridge, the video shows. 

Bogert gave chase, yelling "don't do it! don't do it," before he caught up to the suicidal man. He tackled him to the ground just before he reached the ledge, the video shows. 

"A lot of people don't realize how fast things happen for us, so a lot of it was instinct and reaction, more than training," said Bogert, an 18-year veteran of the force. 

The man continued to struggle, and Bogert held him down on the highway. Cars came dangerously close to them until back-up arrived, video shows.

Bogert's knuckles were raw from the encounter Tuesday but he feels good that he saved the man's life.

"There's a lot of good cops in New Jersey and I don't think they get credit," he said. "And it's nice to see when people recognize it."

The dash cam video has been watched by millions, and Bogert said he's reading all the positive comments on Facebook -- including one from a woman whose family member committed suicide. She thanked Bogert for rescuing another family from the same tragedy. 

The overpass near exit 55 is not known for suicides, police said. 

The distraught man is being treated at a nearby hospital. Police are looking for his family in Pennsylvania. 



Photo Credit: Riverdale Police/NBC 4 NY
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Hastert to Be Sentenced Today

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Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert will learn his fate Wednesday as he is sentenced for breaking federal banking rules in a hush-money scheme attempting to cover up decades of sexual abuse.

Hastert faces up to five years behind bars for the banking charges, but one part of the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

He pleaded guilty last year to a crime known as "structuring," an effort to mask payments to an unnamed individual he had wronged decades ago when he was a wrestling coach.

Hastert arrived to Chicago's Dirksen Federal Courthouse just after 7 a.m. Wednesday ahead of his scheduled 10 a.m. sentencing hearing. He was seen getting out of a large SUV before being wheeled into the building.

Prosecutors have claimed Hastert agreed to pay the accuser more than $3 million to conceal allegations Hastert molested him in a motel room when he was 14 years old. That accuser has since filed suit against Hastert for breach of contract, claiming he failed to finish making the agreed upon payments.

In total, at least four former students have come forward alleging the now 74-year-old molested them when he was a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High. 

Two of the accusers, identified as "Individual D" and Jolene Burdge, the sister of a now-deceased victim, are expected to testify at the sentencing hearing Wednesday. 

Individual D is identified in court documents as a former member of the Yorkville wrestling team during the period when Hastert was coach. He recalled the former speaker had installed a "La-Z-boy" type chair in the boys’ locker room so he could sit and watch while the boys showered, and said Hastert once performed a sexual act on him during a massage.

On the eve of the hearing, Burdge addressed the allegations she’s made on behalf of her brother, who she said detailed the abuse to her before his death.

"He looked at me and said, 'It was with Dennis Hastert,'" she recalled in an interview Tuesday. "'He did this to me, but I’m over it.' But he wasn’t really over it."

Attorneys for Hastert have pleaded for mercy, saying Hastert has been punished enough through failing health and his own guilt and humiliation. Soon after his guilty pleas last October, the former speaker was hospitalized with a series of medical problems including sepsis and a small stroke.

His attorneys asked that Hastert be spared time behind bars, and instead receive probation. 

Hastert’s wife, among many others, sent letters of support to Judge Thomas Durkin last week pleading with him to consider Hastert's family in his sentencing decision.

Hastert's attorney apologized on behalf of the former house speaker in a statement earlier this month. 

"Hastert acknowledges that as a young man he committed transgressions for which he is profoundly sorry," said attorney Thomas Green. "He earnestly apologizes to his former students, family, friends, previous constituents and all others affected by the harm his actions have caused."



Photo Credit: NBC 5

Long Cove Road Closed in Ledyard After Crash

Firefighters Respond to Fire in Bloomfield

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Firefighters have responded to a fire at 36 Woodland Road in Bloomfield.

The fire started just before 7 a.m. and firefighters said they do not believe anyone was injured.



Photo Credit: NBC 7

Board of Trustees to Vote on Closing UConn Torrington Campus

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The board of trustees for UConn is meeting today and will be voting on a proposal to close the Torrington campus as the state cuts millions of dollars from the budget.

UConn officials are asking the board to close the campus and said it is not attracting a sufficient number of students.

Over the last five years, the size of the freshman class has ranged from 53 to 62 students and total enrollment has ranged from 177 to 249 full-time and part-time students, according to the memo to the board of trustees.

Torrington mayor Elinor Carbone has met with UConn and asked the university to keep an open line of communication.

“We feel that the university has systematically reduced resources to the campus. This is a course of action that appears to be designed to set the stage for the failure of the campus since its earlier attempt 1983 to close it,” she said last month.

Residents said closing the campus would have a ripple effect on business in the northwest corner of the state and they feel more options should be explored to partner with other entities to keep it open.

However, UConn officials argue that they have tried through advertising to increase enrollment and it’s been unsuccessful.

If the board approves the proposal, the campus would close in May after final exams.



Photo Credit: NBC Connecticut

Green Light Streaks Across Sky

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Southern California residents took to social media after a streak of green light was seen falling from the sky Tuesday night.

A news photographer's dashcam captured the streak as it fell over the downtown Los Angeles area around 10 p.m.

Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer and director of Griffith Observatory, said it was not clear what the streak was exactly.

Based on the description, the phenomenon is likely a fairly common occurrence where material from outer space heats up, like a meteor, according to Krupp.

He said it also could be debris from a previous launch.

NBC4 viewers called into the station from San Bernardino County and beyond to report seeing the curious ball of light.



Photo Credit: RMG News
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