Arrest made in shooting death

Say law would strip them of independent decisions, politicize criminal justice

Police said they have arrested a woman in a man’s shooting death in Middletown.

Melody Jean Christensen, 44, of Centre, Ala., faces charges of murder and unlawful discharge of a firearm; police said they arrested her on a warrant Thursday night after tracking her down at an East Hartford hotel.

She remained in custody on $1.5 million bail early Friday and was expected to be arraigned in Superior Court in Middletown later in the day, they said.

Police called the homicide an act of domestic violence; they didn’t release the man’s name or the exact location of the deadly shooting.

According to police, they were called to a report of gunfire at an address on South Main Street shortly before 11 p.m. Monday. When officers arrived, they found two people in the building, Christensen and a man, with gunshot wounds.

The man was taken to Middlesex Hospital, where he died, police said.

Police said the homicide wasanisolated incident, and that the general public was not at risk.

Middletown detectives and the Middlesex State’s Attorney’s office continue to investigate the homicide. Anyone with information about it is asked to contact Det. Dan Spedding of the Major Investigations Division at DSpedding@

State prosecutors moved quickly Friday to challenge proposed newlegislation that they say would erode their ability to make independent prosecutorial decisions while exposing them to political pressure.

The proposed law would establish dozens of newpolicies and standards on which prosecutors would be evaluated. There would be — among other things — standards for prosecutorial decisions on arrests and pretrial release of those accused of crimes. And prosecutors would be evaluated on subjects such as their “recommendations of alternatives to incarceration” and “minimizing or eliminating” the costs of such programs to accused criminals.

In addition, the legislation pending in the Legislature’s judiciary committee would move the commission that hires and supervises prosecutors from the mostly independent state Division of Criminal Justice to the Office of Policy and Management, the state budget office.

Lawmakers said the legislation was drafted by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Chief State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo, Jr. and the 13 State’s Attorneys took the unusual step Friday of signing a long, public letter asserting the legislation would undermine efforts by the General Assembly nearly four decades ago when it created the Division of Criminal Justice by constitutional amendment to insulate it from politics.

“The administration of justice should not be political,” the letter said. “Prosecutors must be guided by the evidence in a case and the applicable law, not by partisan, political considerations. Political pressure should never sway a prosecutor’s decision-making.”

In an interview, Colangelo said the overarching effect of the legislation would be to reduce the discretion prosecutors exercise when resolving criminal cases. He said it is conceivable under the proposed law that a prosecutor would unable to comply with the wishes of a crime victim whoasked for leniency for an accused criminal.

“The fear is that they are going to legislate us out of our discretion,” Colangelo said.

He also said the bill would require performance evaluations of prosecutors in matters over which they have little or no control, such as evidence collection by police or plea bargain agreements approved by judges. The bill would require that the evaluations be published on the internet and delivered directly to the state Commission of Human Rights and Opportunities.

The judiciary committee has scheduled a public hearing on the bill March 10.

“I’m not prepared to take a position either in favor or opposed to any aspect of the bill at this point,” said State Rep. Steven Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat and co-chairman of the judiciary committee. “It is not a bill that I drafted as chair. This is a proposal that has come to the committee from the ACLU and the work they have been doing around the state on issues on transparency and accountability in the criminal justice system.”