New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Lawyer questions chief’s role in endangerment probe
NEW CANAAN — The attorney for a mother accused of child endangerment is seeking to preserve evidence in the case and is questioning the police chief’s role in the investigation.
Defense attorney Mark Sherman contends New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski has a conflict of interest because he is related by marriage to his client, Tina Kinol.
In court filings, Sherman accuses Krolikowski of inserting himself into an investigation into Paxton and Tina Kinol’s daily activities with their young children.
Sherman has filed a motion, seeking to preserve a wide range of evidence connected to Krolikowski, including cellphone records, text messages, videotapes and photographs related to the investigation.
Krolikowski has denied being related to the couple. However, Sherman contends in court documents that Krolikowski’s wife’s uncle is the brother-in-law of Tina Kinol’s aunt.
“As a result, Chief Krolikowski is very close with many members of the defendants’ more immediate family,” Sherman wrote in the court filing.
Paxton and Tina Kinol were charged with risk of injury to a minor on Sept. 25 — one week after the chief sent an email to several of his police officers with audio recordings of an incident that allegedly occurred at the couple’s home on Sept. 11, according to an arrest warrant.
“I am not related to the Kinols,” Krolikowski wrote in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media. “However, I am a mandated reporter under Connecticut law when I learn of suspected child abuse or neglect.”
The chief also denied he was related to the Kinols by marriage. “Investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect are always my department's top priority,” he said.
Krolikowski said he stands by the department’s investigation, “which is well-detailed in the arrest warrants, which were approved by a state’s attorney and a judge.”
An arrest warrant indicates that a state Department of Children and Families case worker asked New Canaan police to conduct a welfare check on the Kinol children, who are ages 3 and 4, on Sept. 17.
Five officers showed up at their home, but there were no signs that anything was wrong, the warrant said. The home was tidy and the children appeared to be fine, the warrant said.
The next morning, the chief emailed the officers two audio recordings that allegedly depict a much different scene at the Kinols’ home on Sept. 11, the warrant stated.
In the recordings, Tina Kinol appears to be trying to force one of the children to throw up after the child apparently ingested a pill that could have been Tramadol, a powerful painkiller, the warrant said.
The chief also sent a photograph of a red mark on the child’s neck, the warrant stated. A witness told police the mark was caused when Tina Kinol bit the child, who was crying during the pill incident, the warrant stated. However, the child told police the mark was from a bee sting, according to the warrant. Sherman also contends the mark was a bee sting.
Krolikowski declined further comment and did not explain how he obtained the audio recordings and the photo.
“Given that this is an ongoing prosecution, I won’t comment further, as I have great trust in our criminal justice system,” the chief said.
Police interviewed members of Tina Kinol’s family who said they had not seen any abuse, the arrest warrant states.
But a witness told police the children only eat once a day and are given Benadryl every night so they will sleep, according to the warrant.
Paxton and Tina Kinol, who are free after each posting $50,000 bond, have not entered pleas in the case and are next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 13.
“There was no child abuse,” Sheman said. “This couple loves and lives for their children.”
One of the family members who spoke with police has filed a housing complaint, seeking to evict the couple from their Briscoe Road home due to their arrest. According to the complaint, the Kinols have been renting the home from the family member and the arrest has made them a “nuisance.”
Sherman said in court documents that a DCF bureau chief became involved in the case at Krolikowski’s request. According to Sherman’s court filings, Krolikowski had at least five conversations with DCF staff, and the case “suddenly jumped from the lowest level DCF response ... to a full investigation, a finding of neglect and the filing of a neglect petition in juvenile court.”
Sherman is seeking the preservation of all evidence, including records of any interaction between Krolikowski and the DCF bureau chief, all communications between the police department and DCF on the case, and all recordings, reports and emails involving Tina Kinol’s family and the police.
Sherman also wants all reports Krolikowski has filed related to the “secretly recorded evidence he received from the defendant’s family members.” The list of items includes all communications between the chief’s wife, the New Canaan Police Department and DCF.
The Kinols are considering filing a complaint with the New Canaan Police Department based on a review of the evidence, Sherman said.
“Right now, everything is on the table,” Sherman said this week. “The first step in determining whether there was any impropriety is getting our hands on the evidence we asked the court to preserve.”