Attorney: Plea deal possible in Norwalk vandalism case

STAMFORD — The state is preparing a plea offer for a North Carolina man accused of cutting 2,000 fiber-optic cable lines that disrupted internet service for 40,000 Optimum customers in Fairfield County, his attorney said Monday.

Austin Keith Geddings, 26, is in custody on a $200,000 bond after Norwalk police said he and his girlfriend Jillian Nicole Persons were trying to steal copper wire to pawn when the incident occurred in March.

In state Superior Court in Stamford on Monday, Geddings’ attorney Jared Milbrandt told Judge Alex V. Hernandez that he was in the midst of discussions with a prosecutor about the state preparing a plea offer and asked for the case to be continued for a few weeks.

Geddings is next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 20.

Geddings and Persons, who are both from Asheville, N.C., are accused of damaging about $50,000 worth of fiber optic cable in Norwalk earlier this year.

Optimum notified police of the vandalism around 7:15 a.m. on March

24. An employee said 2,000 fiber optic cables were cut between two poles on Broad Street near Route 7, according to the affidavit.

The damaged fiber optic cables were worthless once cut and were left at the scene, police said in the affidavit.

Geddings was charged in April with interfering with or resisting an officer, first-degree criminal mischief, conspiracy to commit first-degree criminal mischief and attempt to commit first-degree larceny.

Persons was charged with interfering with or resisting an officer, conspiracy to commit firstdegree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree criminal mischief and making a false statement. She is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Stamford on Oct.

26.