Police Chief And Mayor: 'There Was No Cover-Up' Of Cops Arrest

Mayor Richard Moccia and  are adamant there was no cover-up in the handling of the arrest of a police official Sunday morning.

was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation after being charged with disorderly conduct in an incident involving his wife in the early morning hours of Dec. 11.  As first reported by John Nickerson of the Stamford Advocate, Sherry allegedly grabbed his wife by the hair and held her down and then insulted the officers responding to the incident. The seven-year veteran of the police department, allegedly had been drinking.  Sherry was given a summons to appear in court.

However, the incident involving Sherry did not show up on the arrest log distributed to the media during Monday morning's press briefing, leading to speculation that the police department omitted it intentionally. Rilling said Sherry's arrest didn't appear in the log initially because of an error by a police official.

"A sergeant starting the midnight shift comes in around 11 p.m.," Rilling stated. "And it was Dec. 10 when he started. The incident occurred at 2:10 a.m. on Dec. 11. He mistakenly wrote Dec. 10 on the summons and that's why it didn't appear in the log in the morning."

Members of the media who inquired about the incident with Sherry on Tuesday, failed to get any information because the file on the computer had been locked. According to Rilling that was intentional.

"When there is an investigation, an officer might have to answer questions about a fellow officer," said Rilling. "There is information in the report that they should not permitted to see." 

Moccia added there is pertinent information about law enforcement officials that just can't be released for their own well-being.

"There is no intent to hide anything," said Moccia. "We're doing an internal investigation. In that report is the policeman's home address, obviously his wife lives at that address. You never give out home addresses of police officers because that makes them vulnerable to anybody they arrest who may want to revenge. We're not trying to hide anything. There was no cover-up."

Another issue raised concerning the incident with Sherry, was whether or not he received too light a charge because he was a police official. On Saturday, Dec. 10, just hours before the arrest of Sherry, a Norwalk man was arrested for an incident that appeared to be similar to Sherry's but the charges were more severe. 

Police responded to call about a disturbance on Woodward Avenue.  answered the door with a baby in his arms. After an investigation, Garcia was charged with disorderly conduct, risk of injury to a child, and third-degree assault. He allegedly grabbed the hair of his girlfriend and drag her around the apartment.

"I know that some people are trying to compare the two cases," said Rilling. "But the level of aggression was different and there was a child involved in the Garcia case. I reviewed the report and based on what I saw, I feel the charge of disorderly conduct for Detective Sherry was appropriate."

Rilling added that upon review, the charges against Sherry could be increased. "If the prosecutor views the case and wants to upgrade the charges, they're well within their right to do so. But that hasn't been done."

Moccia added. "We are concerned. That is why Sherry's been placed on leave and his weapon has been taken away from him. But let's look at it another way. If we were trying to cover-up anything, why was he arrested? It was a fellow officer who arrested him."