[CT] Sgt. Allen - Abuse of database to assist friend in harassment

I commend the police who took the victim's allegations seriously and investigated. Law enforcement database abuse is one of the additional issues that victims of officer-involved domestic violence are always aware & fearful of. I commend the victim for being brave enough to take a chance, and to act - believing that there were real police - the kind that HELP people - within theHartford Police Department, despite what she was told.

City Police Sergeant Charged With Crime
Stands Accused Of Misusing Database
Hartford Courant
By TINA A. BROWN
February 6, 2008
A Hartford police sergeant has been charged with misusing a criminal records database when he used it to obtain personal information for a female friend. The friend used the information allegedly given to her by Sgt. Reginald Allen, a 17-year veteran, to harass her ex-boyfriend's pregnant girlfriend, who was living in Windsor. Allen was arrested Monday on a charge of committing a computer crime in the third-degree, a Class D felony. He was released on a promise to appear in Superior Court in Hartford on Feb. 11. Allen, who was suspended without pay, allegedly released information he obtained from the National Crime Information Center, a database for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, to an unauthorized person, police said. According to the arrest warrant, Zelma Woodson used the information Allen gave her in November to verbally harass Audrey Gagnon of Windsor, on her work and cellular telephones. Woodson also placed a letter in Gagnon's mailbox, police said. Gagnon, who is pregnant, is the live-in girlfriend of Allen Richardson, Woodson's former boyfriend, police said. Woodson and Allen are friends. During at least one telephone call, Woodson told Gagnon that she had friends in the Hartford Police Department... Gagnon complained to Windsor Police, who reported the allegations to Hartford police, who launched an internal affairs investigation... Monday's arrest is the second time that Allen has faced criminal charges. In Nov. 30, 2000, he was granted a special form of probation after he was convicted of misdemeanor assault and breach of peace, accused of beating up a man in an East Hartford bar...