Case continued for city cop accused in fatal Vegas crash

NEW HAVEN — The case of New Haven officer Robert Ferraro, charged in connection with a fatal crash in Las Vegas last month, recently was continued until January.

Ferraro, 34, is charged with driving under the influence and reckless driving in the Sept. 17 crash, on which claimed the life of fellow city police Officer Joshua Castellano.

A status check in the matter was recently held, at which Ferraro was required to continue to abstain from drugs and alcohol and not to drive during the case, according to Las Vegas judicial records. He was required to surrender his passport ahead of the court date, as well.

The case is next scheduled for Jan. 27, according to judicial records.

Ferraro previously was granted the opportunity to return to Connecticut to await adjudication of the case, according to his defense attorney Gabriel Grasso. As part of that, he has to check in weekly over the phone with authorities and has an alcohol monitor that requires random tests, Grasso said.

Authorities said Ferraro was driving a 2020 Rolls Royce Cullinan around 4 a.m. Sept. 17 when he entered an intersection at a high speed and began to lose control. He allegedly then drove off the side of the road, hitting a 2021 Ford Mustang, utility poles, landscaping and a fire hydrant, authorities said.

The car turned onto its roof, ejecting Castellano from the vehicle. He later died at the hospital, according to a release from the

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

New Haven Officers Matthew Borges and John Truhart, as well as two women from San Antonio, Texas, also were in the vehicle and suffered minor injuries, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The report alleged Ferraro “showed signs of impairment” and allegedly refused to participate in any standardized field sobriety tests.

Grasso said Ferraro and Castellano were close friends from high school and were in the police academy together. He said the two, with two other friends from the academy, had an annual tradition of taking vacations together. Not everyone in the car was associated with the same New Haven police academy class, he said.

“Every year they do a trip for whoever can make a trip. For the last couple years because of COVID they hadn’t done a trip. It was the first trip in a while and they were here for the weekend to be tourists in Las Vegas,” he said.

“It is a huge, huge devastating loss that’s being felt,” he said.