WTNH News Channel 8 / News / 1999

	Coverup Questions Raised Following Drug Arrest of Department Employee (New Haven-WTNH) _ Serious questions are being raised after the secretary of an assistant police chief is busted for drug possession. Lynne Patton was with the assistant chief when she was arrested in December. Patton is accused of offering an off-duty police officer some cocaine in the bathroom of a New Haven bar in December. Three months later some want to know if there's been a police coverup. News Channel 8's Verna Collins reports. The arrest warrant of a woman charged with drug possession may not seem out of the ordinary, Patton is not just any woman. She's a secretary for the Assistant Chief of the New Haven Police Department. According to the warrant, Patton was at J.J. Dempsey's in New Haven on December 2nd of last year. Police say she ran into an off duty officer from Derby who was assigned to the statewide narcotics task force. The officer says the line for the rest rooms was long at the bar that night, and he claims Patton suggested they use one together. Once inside he says Patton asked "do you do this?" When he turned around the officer said Patton was holding a plastic bag of white powder and her driver's license. The officer says he told her to put it away, then went and told his lieutenant, who was also at the bar. The police department and the state lab tested the powder and confirmed it was cocaine. Monday, 3 months after the incident, Patton was arraigned. Some are now asking with such strong evidence against her why did it take police so long to make and arrest? But no one from the police department is talking. Patton did not enter a plea in this case. We went to Patton's home to ask her about the charges, but she was not at home. The New Haven police department did put out a news release. In it they say Patton was a 2 year employee. They also state the facts of the case, then say that Patton turned herself in to police on March 5. But again nobody has told us why Patton was not arrested earlier. Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH/WTNH-DT A LIN station.

Coverup Questions Raised Following Drug Arrest of Department Employee
(New Haven-WTNH) _ Serious questions are being raised after the secretary of an assistant police chief is busted for drug possession. Lynne Patton was with the assistant chief when she was arrested in December. Patton is accused of offering an off-duty police officer some cocaine in the bathroom of a New Haven bar in December. Three months later some want to know if there's been a police coverup.
News Channel 8's Verna Collins reports.

The arrest warrant of a woman charged with drug possession may not seem out of the ordinary, Patton is not just any woman. She's a secretary for the Assistant Chief of the New Haven Police Department.

According to the warrant, Patton was at J.J. Dempsey's in New Haven on December 2nd of last year. Police say she ran into an off duty officer from Derby who was assigned to the statewide narcotics task force.

The officer says the line for the rest rooms was long at the bar that night, and he claims Patton suggested they use one together. Once inside he says Patton asked "do you do this?" When he turned around the officer said Patton was holding a plastic bag of white powder and her driver's license. The officer says he told her to put it away, then went and told his lieutenant, who was also at the bar. The police department and the state lab tested the powder and confirmed it was cocaine.

Monday, 3 months after the incident, Patton was arraigned. Some are now asking with such strong evidence against her why did it take police so long to make and arrest? But no one from the police department is talking. Patton did not enter a plea in this case. We went to Patton's home to ask her about the charges, but she was not at home.

The New Haven police department did put out a news release. In it they say Patton was a 2 year employee. They also state the facts of the case, then say that Patton turned herself in to police on March 5. But again nobody has told us why Patton was not arrested earlier.

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