Andy Thibault

Andy Thibault

Preview of New Book on History of the CT State Police

A WAY OF LIFE SUSTAINED
Written and Edited by ANDY THIBAULT
Publisher, M.T. Publishing Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 6802
Evansville, IN 47719
812-468-8022

Order form available at www.mtpublishing.com (Click on motorcycle photo)

The oldest state police agency in the United States celebrates its Centennial this year;
Book to be published in the spring of 2003.

   "As the longest serving commander in chief of the Ct. State Police during their hundred year history, I am proud to say that they are the finest group of men and women serving in law enforcement."
-- Former Gov. Bill O'Neill

   "As the oldest law enforcement agency of its kind, the Connecticut State Police has survived countless societal changes and changes within its ranks -- and throughout remained a steadfast bastion of security for all our citizens. Troopers and auxiliary troopers have selflessly given their lives in furtherance of this mission. It is upon the path these brave men and women have paved that the Connecticut State Police have met the challenges of the new millennium. All of the residents of our state should recognize the rich history of the Connecticut State Police and its essential role in our lives today."
-- Gov. John Rowland

CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE
100TH Anniversary
1903-2003

FOREWORD

The Badge - Who Will Wear the Badge?
By Col. Joseph A. Perry, Jr., Retired
Commanding Officer Connecticut State Police

   The Connecticut State Police as a law enforcement organization is only as good as the people who work within it. In very few professions is this statement as true as in law enforcement. Complex issues arise around the recruitment, selection, training, and retention of entry-level troopers. The Connecticut State Police, as a professional law enforcement agency, long adhered to the process necessary to select the candidates best suited to wear the badge. The dividends gained from well suited, well selected, and well-trained troopers outweigh the time and expense needed to develop that trooper.

     Professional police administrators have devised comprehensive recruiting and training programs. Far beyond merely finding a body to fit a training class slot, recruiting takes into account such concerns as community issues, diversity, the establishing of exacting but realistic standards and overall fairness in the selection process. The result of this effort is both the state and the department are rewarded with a professional trooper.

     Recent events will undoubtedly produce new concerns in the area of police hiring. Many departments will seek to expand staffing levels overnight.

     In the past, rapid expansion has led to a general lowering of standards, less than adequate background investigations, and reduced recruit training periods. The cost of lowering standards for police candidates is measured by the loss of community standing and in some cases the loss of dollars.

     Today's police administrators need to review their hiring standards and remain steadfast beside those goals. The lowering of standards just to get everyone on board is shortsighted. An agency's future is built upon the character of each individual trooper.

     The recruitment, selection and training of trooper candidates must not sacrifice quality for quantity. The agency such as the Connecticut State Police, that demands quality from the persons it selects to wear the badge, is an agency that will excel and be viewed as a professional community asset.

Proud To Have Served With A Great Department
By Bernie Sullivan
Commissioner, Retired

   In November of 1989, having been retired as Chief of Police for the City of Hartford, I was contacted by Governor William O'Neill, who asked me to accept his appointment to the position of commissioner of Public Safety for the State of Connecticut. After completing 25 years of police service it was with some mixed emotion that I accepted.

     It didn't take long to get immersed in the challenges before me. The department was going through a period of highly negative media and political attention that resulted from accusations of illegally taping telephone conversations. An immediate review of the situation demonstrated that there was no deliberate or malicious cause but that rather technology had gotten away from the department. It was relatively simple to fix the telephone system, however, the department remained under severe scrutiny. There was a strong message sent by elected officials to have a civilian take command of the department. Having just completed about 90 days of civilian life, I guess I qualified.

     The days ahead were both challenging and rewarding. Obviously, many members of the department perceived me as an "outsider" and were disappointed that the new commissioner was not appointed from within.

     Governor O'Neill and I agreed that immediate action was necessary to resolve the telephone recording system and that a restructuring of the department was necessary to meet a long standing legislative mandate to have a Department of Public Safety with a division of state police as a sub-unit. As formidable as the task seemed, it was much easier to accomplish than I first suspected it would be. The men and women of the State Police as well as the men and women who worked in the fire marshal's and building inspection offices were more than ready to accept the challenge and move forward.

     Working with the legislature and having Governor O'Neill's support, we divided the Department of Public Safety into two divisions, the division of State Police and the division of Fire, Emergency and Building Services. Each division was headed by a deputy commissioner, with the deputy commissioner heading the division of State Police assuming the rank of Colonel. The reorganization was approved legislatively and enacted into statute in 1990, and is still the defined structure of the Department of Public Safety today. In addition to all the troopers and staff at the Department of Public Safety, much credit is due to Colonel John Watson, Deputy Commissioner, Division of State Police and David Paige, Deputy Commissioner Division of Fire, Emergency and Building Services. Both Deputy Commission Paige and Deputy Commission Watson effected the reorganization in a timely and highly capable fashion. I would be remiss if I did not also publicly thank Lori Previtali who served as my executive assistant, as well as Sgt. Paul Reid, my aide. Both of these individuals served commissioners before me and brought a wealth of knowledge with them.

     There were many members of the department who demonstrated a great loyalty to the Connecticut State Police and proved their professionalism and dedication by being part of the forward movement and I collectively thank all of them. I left the department in 1991 with the as a new governor was elected.

     By calendar my tenure was short, but the experience I shared with so many people still leaves this as a milestone in my life. I am proud to have served with so many dedicated individuals, both sworn and civilian, who contributed to my professional growth. The State of Connecticut can be proud of the Department of Public Safety. The dedication of the men and women of the department is unquestionably in the highest standards of public service.

INTRODUCTION
By Andy Thibault

   Sgt. John O'Hara, a big guy, was the first trooper I ever met.

     I was 10 years old. I thought Sgt. O'Hara was John Wayne.

   Sgt. O'Hara lived up the street in my neighborhood in Uncasville. He took it easy on me after Mrs. O'Hara advised him I was riding my cousin's go-kart all over the place. I didn't have a license, and I guess that was some kind of motor vehicle violation. Sgt. O'Hara was kind and firm, so I guess my earliest memories of the Connecticut State Police are of a gentle giant. Basically, he just told me to park it and stay out of trouble.

     This was about 40 years ago. Since then, I have had the pleasure of meeting many state troopers, mostly under positive conditions.

     No department is perfect, but, after more than 30 years of working for newspapers and magazines, I can honestly say I am a fan of the Connecticut State Police.

     Maybe it's the training, maybe it's the tradition of strong and ethical leadership that set the CSP apart. In my view, it's the cops who hold the key to a strong and functioning democracy. It's the good cops who keep many of us honest - in business, in politics, and in other endeavors. Cops know the real score, and sometimes they pay a price for doing the right thing. In my experience, the Connecticut State Police do the right thing at a higher rate than most organizations of any kind - that includes, cops, businesses, general government, newspapers, whatever.

     As I advanced in years - maybe to about 12 - my friend and classmate Gerry Stergio told me how his big brother Mike would do pushups in the Marines with guys jumping on his back, and that Mike was going to be a state trooper. Mike Stergio was another trooper I had the pleasure of knowing over the years, as a resident state trooper and as a detective.

     Besides being tough and restrained, it often struck me that these troopers were smarter than the average bear. Many of them were funny and had good personalities, once you got to know them.

     My favorite trooper of all time was George Ryalls. At times, George fancied himself a clone of Inspector Clousseau / Peter Sellers. I watched him tap dance and shuffle in the hallways of a courthouse during a grand jury. He was warm and funny and he made me forget that he had given me nothing.

     Beyond that façade, George Ryalls was a shrewd and determined detective who was involved in the major criminal investigations of the 1970s and `80s.

     As reported in the press, Ryalls helped crack the mob slayings of three men connected to World Jai Alai, which operated frontons in Florida and Connecticut. He suspected complicity by the FBI with the mob in Boston, and he was right.

     One of George's colleagues, Trooper Justine Miller, also worked that aforementioned grand jury. I remember another trooper, Charlie Wargat, razzed Justine about something and she promptly flipped him. I watched Charlie bounce on the hard floor and thought, this is not a woman I want to mess with.

     Overseeing this operation was then- Lt. Richard Hurley who -- after a distinguished career with the CSP -- went on, in his own words, to "break up yellow snow rings" as a police chief in Vermont for a while. Hurley came back to Connecticut, worked some private sector jobs and is living happily in retirement.

     I'll never forget meeting Commissioner Lester Forst. I was working for The Stamford Advocate & Greenwich Time in the late 1980s. I was probably one of the few people who liked and admired both Forst and his adversary in a big turf war, former Chief State's Attorney Austin McGuigan. I always thought it was too bad they couldn't get on the same wavelength, because then no criminals or crooked politicians would have a chance.

     Forst enjoyed a story I had done after riding 24 hours straight with troopers on I-95 in Fairfield County. I can still feel the bridges and road shaking from all the traffic and stress on the infrastructure. Not much happened, but I met a trooper out of Bridgeport who had some kind of instinct for nabbing drunk drivers at a very high rate, and his arrests stood up. The wackiest part was when one of the troopers I was riding with pulled over as he saw a big rug in the passing lane. This guy walks out on I-95, where it seemed no one was doing less than 70 mph, and he holds his arms up for traffic to stop in the passing lane.

     "Some of us like suicide," Forst remarked.

     Thankfully, the traffic stopped. The trooper hauled the rug off I-95. Forst met me for a few beers and chili dogs in Greenwich. I could see how troopers would follow this guy, and my fondness and respect for him endures.

     I never met Commissioner Leo Mulcahy, but I have heard and read a lot about him. Troopers who worked for Mulcahy called him a man of virtue and a quiet, but dynamic leader. Some qualify their admiration of Mulcahy by noting his all-consuming opposition to union organizing.

      It's fair to say Mulcahy was not an advocate of civil disobedience, but it seems he had some respect for the right of assembly. During Vietnam War protests at the University of Connecticut Mulcahy prepared troopers at the old Mansfield Training School nearby.

     "If you can't treat these people like your daughters and sons, I don't want you here," Mulcahy is quoted as saying. "Anyone who can't do their job and leave their guns in their holsters and their billy clubs at their side, just go in your cruiser and go back and patrol. That's what I want."

     Mulcahy would fire people, but he would get them jobs and send them money - his own - at Christmas.

     "I know," said retired Sgt. Ed Funk, Mulcahy's aide, "because I delivered it."

      Retired Lt. William Sydenham was a young trooper toward the end of the Mulcahy era.

     "Commissioner Mulcahy told you what he expected," Sydenham recalled. "He told you what you were going to do and how to handle yourself. After that, you felt you could handle anything."

      Like many young troopers, Sydenham was in awe of Mulcahy, who used to show up at barracks without warning. Sydenham had no reason to think Mulcahy knew him.

     "I'm walking down the stairs," Sydenham said, "and I see the commissioner. I salute him. He says, `Sydenham, you did a good job on those burglaries last week.' I felt like a million bucks. The commissioner knows me and he knows what I'm trying to do."

     Like Commissioner Forst, Commissioner Ed Leonard was a trooper's trooper. In the field, Leonard used his instincts to get the job done. In the area around the Old Saybrook barracks there was a tough guy known as "Shot-Beer." He had fought many state troopers, and getting the call to respond to an incident at this man's house was not a welcome assignment. A few of the older guys thought they could set Leonard up by sending him to Shot-Beer's house.

     As legend has it, Leonard went alone. Shot-Beer was ready to fight. Leonard was polite and firm.
Shot-Beer asked him to have a drink. They sat down and talked for quite some time. Leonard brought Shot-Beer back to the barracks, both of them unmarked and unharmed, stunning the old guys.

      It was Leonard - commissioner after Mulcahy -- who brought management training into the department.

     "This was a foreign thing for cops," Sydenham said. "We used to have management by objectives, and retreats. Leonard got that all started. Leonard was like the rest of us, he came from the old school. But he was very progressive. He tried to bring us up to speed with the rest of the world with management training."

     Today's Connecticut State Troopers are respected for the breadth and depth of their training. Despite losses of many old hands from retirement incentives, there remains a core of characters who know and love the job.

     They face many of the same challenges their colleagues faced 100 years ago, and a few new challenges in the post- September 11 world. They carry the torch for the Mulcahys and Leonards and O'Haras, Stergios, Millers and Ryalls.

     This book is for them and their families and all the good citizens of Connecticut.

     In the pages that follow you will see snapshots of life on the job -- stories that represent the experiences of thousands of troopers over 100 years. This is not a comprehensive history, for that would require scores of volumes. Instead, you will see vignettes and contributions from many troopers - current and retired -- and friends of the department.

      Thanks is due to many, but in particular the following: Joe DeStefano, Scott O'Mara, Lonny Mo, Pete Warren, Matt Tyszka, Jerry Longo, Dean Hammond, Mark Wallack, Ed Funk and Bill Sydenham. This is a production of the Alumni Association, with outstanding support from Commisioner Arthur Spada, Col. Tim Barry and the staff of Trooper News.

     As with any operation, it is the laborers in the trenches who make sure the job gets done. Much of the material in this book was typeset by Martha X of the Narcotics Division. Thank you, Martha!

Andy Thibault, a columnist for Law Tribune Newspapers, teaches journalism at the University of Hartford. His latest book is Law & Justice In Everyday Life. Thibault began writing about the challenges and achievements of the Connecticut State Police in 1975.

LINK TO Connecticut State Police Academy Alumni Association: www.cspaaa.com

CODE OF HONOR OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE

   The traditions and splendid reputation of the Connecticut State Police are incorporated in the following code of honor, to which all members of the Department subscribe by word and deed:

   "I am a Connecticut State Trooper - a soldier of the law. To me is entrusted the honor of the Department.

   "I will serve the State of Connecticut honestly and faithfully and, if need be, lay down my life as others have done rather than swerve from the path of duty.

   "I will be loyal to my superiors, obey the law and enforce the law without discrimination as to class, color, creed or condition, and without fear or favor.

   "I will help those in danger or distress, and at all times conduct myself so as to uphold the honor of the Department."


DEDICATION
We shall never forget our lost brothers and sisters.

Pearle E. Roberts            November 22, 1922

Bartholomew E. Skelly    November 14, 1925

Irving H. Nelson              April 6, 1928

Lloyd J. Eukers               July 21, 1928

Stanley H. Heilberg         June 1, 1929

Leonard H. Watson        October 22, 1932

Charles F. Hill                 November 6, 1941

Edward Jesmonth            July 20, 1943

Kenneth W. Stevens        June 6, 1944

Frank A. Starkel              July 19, 1948

Ernest J. Morse                February 13, 1953

James W. Lambert           October 29, 1960

Joseph M. Stoba Jr.         August 6, 1962

Carl P. Moller                  February 13, 1976

Thomas E. Carney            December 6, 1982

James Savage                   January 22, 1986

Jorge Agosto                   November 22, 1989

Russell Bagshaw              June 5, 1991

Edward Truelove             November 13, 1992

Phillip A. Mingione           May 25, 1994

*Trooper Trainee Kenneth P. Moore was killed just 8 weeks prior to his graduation from the State Police Academy on April 17, 1987. He was hit head-on by a drunk driver.

Back to Top