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New Haven County resident Walter Dambowsky, age 74, of Naugatuck, turned himself in to authorities on Monday, Aug. 5 in connection with his alleged impersonation of an officer, Connecticut State Police announced on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
According to Dambowsky's arrest warrant, he is employed by Naugatuck as the town's Emergency Management Director and was issued a black Chevrolet Tahoe equipped with emergency vehicle lighting and a siren package.
The investigation into Dambowsky began following an incident on Monday, June 3, between 6:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., when he allegedly turned on his Tahoe's flashing lights and pulled a victim over on Lincoln Street, according to the complainant's statement.
In the statement, the complainant told police that Dambowsky had been wearing a maroon golf shirt with no identifying markings and flashed a gold badge inside his wallet.
He then allegedly lectured the victim on safe driving and when asked if he was going to give her a ticket, he said "no" and added that he did not want to see anyone get hurt, according to the warrant.
After taking a look at surveillance footage, police confirmed that Dambowsky had been in the area where the traffic stop allegedly took place at the time the complainant said it had happened.
When troopers called Dambowsky about the incident days later on Wednesday, June 5, he denied it happened and said he had only yelled at someone for cutting him off at another intersection. He also denied activating his emergency lights, police said.
According to state police, Dambowsky had been accused of conducting traffic stops before in April, at which time he did not face consequences but was advised against using his emergency lights and sirens for any reason outside the scope of his town position.
On Friday, June 21, as the investigation into the incident progressed, state police eventually seized the Tahoe as evidence after learning it was equipped with a dash camera.
They found a gold Naugatuck Homeland Security Badge in the front center console. Additionally, authorities discovered an SD memory card inside the vehicle's dash camera.
As they examined the Tahoe, investigators also found out that it had two blown 30 amp fuses that prevented the activation of the emergency lights and siren, despite the fact that it was supposed to have two new 40 amp fuses, according to the warrant.
When they took a look at the dash camera footage on the SD card seized during the search, authorities saw that it only had data from Wednesday, June 19; Thursday, June 20; and Friday, the day of the seizure, on it.
Although the card is supposed to overwrite its own data when it is full, it was not close to being full, police said.
State police then searched Dambowsky's residence on Tuesday, July 9, and found a piece of paper on a printer that contained a search from the Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Library inquiring into criminal impersonation in the state, the warrant stated.
Based on this, troopers determined that Dambowsky likely wiped the dashcam footage from the card after learning about the criminal investigation against him in June, according to his arrest warrant.
To make matters worse for Dambowsky, when state police had the original complainant take a look at a double-blind eight-photo lineup she identified a picture of him with 75 percent certainty, police said.
Based on this evidence, Dambowsky was charged with the following after his arrest:
- Impersonation of a police officer;
- Tampering with physical evidence;
- Second-degree breach of peace.
He was later released from custody on a $1,000 court-set bond and will appear in Danbury Superior Court on Tuesday, Aug. 20.
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