SUICIDE IN RAID BOTCH

Kid-porn probe focus

A former Connecticut Planned Parenthood honcho committed suicide days after police botched a raid on his home in a child pornography investigation — by instead knocking down the door of the suspect’s New Haven neighbor, according to local reports.

Tim Yergeau, 36, the former director of strategic communications at the Southern New England branch of Planned Parenthood, died Tuesday morning, police said.

“The person who died was definitely the suspect in a child pornography investigation and the person who committed suicide,” New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson told the New Haven Register.

Five days earlier, members of the Special Victims Unit investigating the child porn case reportedly broke down the door of Yergeau’s neighbor and handcuffed the woman before realizing they had raided the wrong apartment.

“They obviously hit the wrong door,” Jacobson told the Register. “We feel for the woman and we’re going to do everything we can to make it right.”

New Haven police’s internal affairs officers are looking into how the cops erred, according to the paper.

Connecticut’s Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner confirmed Yergeau died by suicide.

Amid two open investigations into the matter, police said they will not release the search-warrant application or information about what was found in Yergeau’s apartment until they confirm that no other suspects were involved, local reports said.

Yergeau’s neighbor Stacey Wezenter, told the Register she relives being handcuffed every time she now walks down the apartment’s hallway.

“What if I had a gun permit? What if I came down the hallway with a gun? Would I have gotten shot? What if my 4-year-old had woken up? Would they have shot him?” Wezenter said. “You just don’t do that to people.”

Police entered her apartment around 6 a.m. and began systematically moving through the home with their guns drawn, she recalled.

“I started running down the hallway. . . . They had guns and flashlights on me,” she said. ‘They put me against the wall and handcuffed me. I was crying.”

After officers noticed toys belonging to her 4-year-old son, they reportedly realized they were not in the correct apartment and told her they had been investigating her neighbor.

After leaving Planned Parenthood, Yergeau began working at the Long Wharf Theatre in August 2022 as its marketing and communications director, according to the organization’s website.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn the developments of the last 24 hours,” a spokesperson for the theater told the outlet. “Given the difficult news, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

According to the Long Wharf Theatre website, Yergeau had also previously worked for the New Haven Free Public Library Foundation.