By John Nickerson
Staff Writer
January 30, 2008
NORWALK - A senior Norwalk police lieutenant was charged yesterday with having sex with two 15-year-old boys and trying to lure another to his Dreamy Hollow condominium, police and court officials said.
Lt. Thomas Cummings, a 24-year department veteran, turned himself over to Stamford police yesterday morning and was charged with three counts of enticing a minor, two counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts of risk of injury to a minor, his three arrest affidavits show.
The state's attorney's office in Stamford is continuing its investigation, and more charges could be added.
The allegations indicate that Cummings, who came under investigation while he was commanding the department's detective bureau, had contact with at least one victim, a sophomore at Norwalk High School, while he was doing police overtime work at the school in 2003.
Cummings, 46, of Norwalk, is facing a maximum 115-year prison sentence if convicted of all charges. He was released yesterday on $75,000 bond and is due to appear Feb. 14 at state Superior Court in Stamford.
Cummings has been on paid administrative leave since the state's attorney's office launched its investigation Oct. 29. Yesterday, he was suspended without pay, Norwalk police Chief Harry Rilling said.
News of the arrest and the charges and victims rocked the department of 160 officers.
"There is not much I can say. We are shocked as everybody else is," police union President William Curwen said. "We are concerned about the alleged victims in this case and Tom and his family."
Curwen said the arrest does not look good for the membership.
"This is a black eye for our guys," he said.
A veteran officer, who asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to talk to the press, said he was deeply hurt and angered.
"It appears that Lt. Cummings led a secret life other than a police officer, a life where he was a sexual predator targeting young teenage boys. It is a total embarrassment and disgusting that he is even vaguely associated with the Norwalk Police Department, let alone a member of its command staff," the officer said.
Because of the conflict, Norwalk police handed the investigation over to the state's attorney's office in Stamford.
"These allegations are extremely serious and if found to be true, will be dealt with harshly," Rilling said. "We have cooperated and worked with the state's attorney's office from the moment the allegations were brought forth and will continue to do so until final disposition."
Rilling said the charges should not reflect on the hard-working, dedicated men and women of the department and Norwalk residents can be confident that the department's "commitment to excellence" will not be compromised by Cummings' arrest.
Senior Assistant State's Attorney Richard Colangelo, who is prosecuting the case, said he would not comment. The investigation was ongoing, Colangelo added.
The investigation was prompted by a complaint made by a 15-year-old boy from Weston whom Cummings met in an Internet chat room. According to his arrest warrant, Cummings invited the boy to his condominium, where they had sexual intercourse.
None of the current charges are a result of that encounter.
A message left yesterday afternoon for Cummings' attorney Jacob Zeldes was not returned.
During a brief telephone conversation, Cummings declined comment.
On Nov. 1, police searched Cummings' Dreamy Hollow home and seized 143 pornographic videotapes and 110 DVDs of teenage males and males in their 20s engaged in sex acts, the affidavit says.
The investigation of the Weston youth's allegation sparked news reports, which brought a 22-year-old Fairfield man to state's attorney's office inspector Gary Mecozzi, a former Norwalk police sergeant.
The Fairfield man gave a sworn statement saying he met Cummings at age 17 in July 2003 on the gay Web site Manhunt.com and after a couple of months he went to Cummings' condominium.
The man said he and Cummings had oral sex, and he provided inspectors with the names of three other teenagers who said they had sex more recently with Cummings.
One of those teens, an 18-year-old male, whose name was not included in the arrest warrant, said he met Cummings when he was 15, during the summer of 2005, the affidavit said.
The young man said he learned from friends that they were having "amazing" sex with a male police officer who works occasionally at Norwalk High School, the affidavit said.
The teen added that he then got onto the Manhunt.com Web site where he contacted Cummings, whose screen name was CTSNOWBOARD29, the affidavit said.
On a few occasions, Cummings wanted to have sex with the young man in his car. He offered to pick up the youth at his home, which he said he frequently passed on his way home from work, the affidavit said.
After seeing the young man at the high school, Cummings wrote an e-mail asking why he didn't say hello to him.
The teen said he told Cummings that he was 15, but Cummings ignored him and sent him a photo showing an outline of his private parts, the affidavit said. Cummings and the young man did not have sex, the affidavit indicates.
A second youth told police he also met Cummings through the Manhunt Web site just before Christmas 2003 when he was 15 and a sophomore at Norwalk High School.
The man, who is now 19, said that after a month of e-mails and messages, Cummings picked him up at home in his Jeep Wrangler.
Once at his Wolfpit Avenue condo, the two watched TV for a little while before Cummings began playing soft-core pornography on his laptop computer.
The two then had sex, the affidavit said.
The victim said he met Cummings 10 more times while he was 15, but stopped seeing him after the youth began dating someone else, the affidavit said.
The third youth, now 19, told police that he was 15 in fall 2004 when he met Cummings on Manhunt.com, the affidavit said.
Just after Halloween that year, Cummings picked the youth up in his Jeep and took him to his home.
Once inside, Cummings began playing gay pornography on the television and took the youth's clothes off.
Cummings led the young man to his bedroom where two other males were located and the two had oral sex.
On the way home that day, Cummings remarked to the youth, "What happens at my condo stays at my condo," the affidavit said.
The youth told police that he continued to see and have sex with Cummings for a year, the affidavit said.
"These are very serious charges and if they are true it will be a stain on the department that will be hard to erase," said Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia, who sits on the city's police commission. "But because of the 99 percent of the men and women of the police department who do their jobs on a daily basis, we will overcome it and do our best to ensure that the people of this city have confidence in our police department."
Former police captain Peter Torrano, a police commissioner, said he was "distressed by the seriousness of the allegations, as is everyone else in the Norwalk Police Department."
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