The top two leaders of Connecticut State Police will be stepping down in the middle of multiple investigations into whether troopers submitted bogus data on thousands of traffic stops that may have never happened, Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday.
State public safety Commissioner James Rovella and Col. Stavros Mellekas, commanding officer of state police, will be retiring, Lamont said at an unrelated news conference. A formal announcement was planned for later in the day.
The Democratic governor said Rovella and Mellekas were not being forced to leave, but he declined to elaborate further on the reasons and timing of their departures. He said more information would be released at the formal announcement.
“I think at the end of four years, you want a fresh start," said Lamont, referring to his second term that began in January. “And I wanted that in a lot of my departments and I thought it was the right thing to do in public safety. There’s a lot of clearing of the air in public safety and I think some new folks will make a difference.”
Rovella and Mellkas were not immediately available for comment through a state police spokesperson, who did say had not been advised of the retirements.
U.S. Department of Justice investigators are looking into whether dozens of troopers falsified information about traffic stops that were never made. There also is an independent investigation ordered by Lamont that is being led by a former federal prosecutor.
The information in question was...
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