Former Norwalk cop pleads guilty to reduced charges
STAMFORD — A former Norwalk police officer pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges stemming from accusations that she and a colleague were drinking and ignoring calls for service while on duty.
Sara Laudano, 32, appeared remotely before Judge Gary White on Thursday and pleaded guilty to sixth-degree larceny and second-degree reckless endangerment as part of a plea deal with the state.
In return for the pleas, Laudano will pay a total of $1,000 in fines.
Paul Ferencek, state's attorney for the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District, said the state decided to reduce the charges against Laudano from second-degree larceny to sixth-degree larceny after investigators determined that loss of money to the city, which he said was “hard to determine,” only came out to around $200.
The guilty pleas come about a month after Laudano and her former coworker and codefendant, 39-year-old Michael DiMeglio, were decertified by the Police Officer Standards and Training Council following a review of the Norwalk Police Department's internal investigation. The investigation found the two officers had “betrayed the public trust” by consuming alcohol on the job.
“These misdemeanor convictions will ensure that she can never be recertified as a Connecticut police officer, and that was primarily the state's interest in this case,” Ferencek said on Thursday.
Before pleading guilty, Laudano said she was “deeply remorseful” about her actions, adding that the past two years have served as a “tough lesson” for her.
“I apologize to the community, the officers and everyone that this all affected,” Laudano said. “I understand the severity, and I'm sorry.”
Last month, DiMeglio pleaded guilty to the same two charges as a part of an identical deal with
state prosecutors.
Their guilty pleas end more than a 18-month-long ordeal that began on Oct. 9, 2020, when dispatchers couldn’t locate either officer while they were supposed to be working.
Attorney Raymond M. Hassett, who represents Laudano, said the incident was fueled, in part, by the stress of working as a police officer during the COVID-19 pandemic. That stress was compounded when Laudano came back to work early from maternity leave, he said.
“She was asked to come back early and she did. It was probably a mistake because, Your Honor, she needed some assistance with what was going on in her life at that time,” Hassett said.
Arrest warrants show a 12hour period between Oct. 8 and 9 in which DiMeglio and Laudano, 31, are accused of drinking in their police cruisers in a Norwalk school parking lot and not responding to service calls before they were found in a hotel room together.
Laudano was accused of driving with a baby and a civilian in the cruiser after she consumed alcohol, and also using a THC vape pen, according to the warrants.
A department investigation was launched and both officers were placed on administrative leave.
The investigation determined their conduct went beyond department violations and criminal charges were filed.
DiMeglio and Laudano were each charged with second-degree larceny and second-degree reckless endangerment in January 2021. Laudano also faced a charge of risk of injury to a minor.
Both Laudano and DiMeglio resigned from the Norwalk Police Department on Oct. 15, 2021 — nearly a month after both were denied a chance at wiping their records clean when a Stamford judge decided the allegations against them were “too serious” to grant them a pretrial probation program.