Warrant: Ex-city official had 16 drinks
Hit-and-run crash left teen on life support
A former Waterbury city official is believed to have consumed 16 alcoholic beverages in the hours leading up to a hit-and-run last Saturday that left a teenager on life support, according to the arrest warrant affidavit in the case.
Waterbury police investigators said they were able to uncover two bar tabs — one paid for at 8:29 p.m. and the other at 10 p.m. — belonging to John Egan, 58, that showed he bought 14 drinks at the Verdi restaurant at the Western Hills Golf Course in Waterbury before he reportedly had two more beers at another bar the night 17-year-old Bryan Calle was struck while riding a scooter in the city, the affidavit said.
Egan on Wednesday was arrested in connection with the accident and charged with evading responsibility involving a serious injury and failure to yield the right of way on a left turn. He has not been charged with DUI.
The accident left Calle in critical condition. Waterbury-based attorney Ioannis Kaloidis, who is representing the teen’s family, said Friday that the latest information he received indicated the prognosis for Calle was still poor and that he was being kept in a medically-induced coma while his parents scramble to get the proper travel documents to get here from Ecuador.
“The family members who are here are not comfortable making certain decisions,” Kaloidis said. “It’s just sad,” he added. According to Kaloidis, Calle had only lived in Waterbury for about six months after coming here from Ecuador.
“He wanted to work and go to school,” Kaloidis said. “There’s people still pursuing the American Dream like the Europeans did
100 years ago.”
Kaloidis said Calle’s parents have been working to obtain the proper travel documents to get into the country, which was complicated when they were initially denied an emergency appointment to apply for a visa. Connecticut state officials helped square the situation away, and the parents are planning to get on a plane as soon as they receive their passports, said Kaloidis, who plans on meeting them at the hospital “the moment they get here.”
Egan, who resigned as chairman of the Waterbury Zoning Commission this week, was reportedly seen on video surveillance consuming the 14 alcoholic drinks he purchased at Verdi the night of the hit-and-run, Waterbury investigators wrote in the affidavit. The drinks he bought included six “Long Drinks” hard seltzers, one “High Noon” hard seltzer, two light beers, two “Old Fashioned” drinks, two spiked seltzers and a glass of wine, the affidavit said.
Egan left the golf course parking lot at 10:04 p.m., according to video surveillance viewed by investigators. A witness said he arrived at a bar called The Cave on East Main Street sometime before 10:30 p.m., the affidavit said. The witness at the East Main Street bar said Egan did not appear intoxicated, and that he ordered two light beers before leaving between 11:30 p.m. and midnight, according to the affidavit.
Waterbury police received multiple 911 calls shortly after midnight on Saturday about a hit-and-run involving an SUV striking a scooter at the intersection of West Main Street and Highland Avenue. Officers found Calle unresponsive lying in the road, as he had been thrown from the scooter from the impact, according to the affidavit.
The 17-year-old was taken to Waterbury Hospital before being airlifted via Lifestar to the Connecticut Children’s in Hartford, as he was almost immediately put on life support, the affidavit said.
Doctors at CCMC diagnosed
Calle with multiple skull fractures, a brain bleed, an uncal herniation — which involved portions of the brain moving from one intracranial compartment to another — liver lacerations and a pulmonary contusion, police wrote in the affidavit.
Investigators learned Egan had been consuming alcohol at the Verdi restaurant the night of the crash after receiving a tip from an anonymous source, according to the affidavit. They also found car parts at the scene of the crash that they determined came from a newer-model Cadillac XT5 SUV.
Investigators checked for registered owners of the vehicle believed to be involved and found that Egan was the only person in the area with that vehicle registered in his name, according to the affidavit. They were also able to use the license plate information from video surveillance in the area of the crash.
Police went to Egan’s home on Saturday at 11:18 a.m. and found a Cadillac XT5 in the driveway with damage that appeared consistent with parts found at the hit-and-run, the affidavit said. Egan opened the garage to the home and came outside as investigators were at the residence, saying he did not want to give a statement until hearing from his attorney, according to the affidavit. His attorney later told authorities Egan would not be giving a statement.
Waterbury police had the vehicle towed after they obtained a search and seizure warrant for the vehicle. They said they found that the car parts at the hit-andrun scene had an “exact fit match” to the missing car parts from Egan’s Cadillac, the affidavit said.
Surveillance footage in the area of the crash showed a motorist in an SUV turn left from West Main Street onto Highland Avenue, striking Calle, who was heading east on West Main Street, according to the affidavit. The headlamp on the scooter was on at the time of the crash.
Surveillance showed the motorist in the SUV pulled over briefly before continuing south on Highland Avenue, according to the affidavit.
Egan is free on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned in Waterbury Superior Court on June 12.