Former charter school director charged with kidnapping women

ROCKY HILL — the former executive director of a charter school company brought in to turn around a Bridgeport school has been charged in connection with four sexual assaults in Connecticut dating back to 1984.

Michael M. Sharpe, 69, of Marlborough, was arrested Tuesday and charged with four counts of first-degree kidnapping by the Cold Case Unit of the Chief’s State’s Attorney’s Office using forensic genetic genealogy.

He was released on a promise to appear in court.

“This arrest shows just how dedicated the Division of Criminal Justice’s Cold Case Unit is to solving crimes and the commitment the unit has to its continued efforts toward the use of innovative methods to close some of the state’s most difficult investigations,” said Chief State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo Jr. “With this arrest, the victims of these crimes who have waited more than three decades to see their attacker brought to justice now know he will be held accountable for his crimes.”

Sharpe is accused, according to the arrest warrant affidavit, with the June 3, 1984, alleged sexual assault of a 25-year-old woman in Bloomfield; the June 26, 1984, alleged sexual assault of a 30-year-old woman in Middletown; the July 21, 1984, alleged sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman in Windsor and the July 24, 1984, alleged sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman in Rocky Hill.

In all four attacks, Sharpe is accused of brandishing a firearm while breaking into homes where the sexual assaults occurred, the affidavit states.

The Chief State’s Attorney said after years of not being able to match DNA found at the crime scene with samples in DNA databases, investigators were able to develop Sharpe as a suspect in the crimes using publicly available genealogy information.

On Nov. 9, 2020, investigators retrieved Sharpe’s DNA from items found in trash left on the curb at his Marlborough home. The DNA found on those items allegedly matched the suspect in the four 1984 sexual assaults, police said.

A search warrant was issued for saliva secretions and buccal cell samples from Sharpe. Those samples also allegedly matched the suspect in the four 1984 sexual assaults, police said.

In 1984 Sharpe’s company, Family Urban Schools of Excellence, was hired by the city of Bridgeport to turn around the failing Dunbar School. He and his company were later fired after it came out that Sharpe had lied about his credentials and his criminal background and the criminal backgrounds of people he hired to work as school aides.

Sharpe