State Briefs

Conn. prison guard charged with bigamy

BRIDGEPORT (AP) >> A Connecticut corrections officer has been charged with bigamy after a routine state audit of his benefits turned up two wives.

The Connecticut Post reports state police charged Kevin Hornak, 50, on Wednesday after both women presented investigators with valid marriage certificates.

State police said the two wives know each other, but each believed she was the only one legally married to Hornak, a guard at the Bridgeport Correctional Center.

Hornak first got married while he was in the Navy and stationed in Philadelphia in 1984, police said.

He married a second time in 2005 at a bed and breakfast in Vermont.

Police said Hornak told them his second wife became very possessive and controlling during their relationship, and insisted on getting married so that she could be covered by his insurance.

He proposed to her on a cruise in New York in 2004 and had assured her that he had been divorced from his first wife, police said.

Hornak has an unlisted phone number and could not be reached early Thursday.

He was scheduled to be presented in Bridgeport Superior Court later in the day after being released from custody on a promise to appear.

Newtown approves use of grant for new school

NEWTOWN (AP) >> Newtown residents have approved spending $750,000 in state grant money to begin work on replacing the school where 26 people were shot to death in December.

The News Times of Danbury reports an overflow crowd of about 200 people attended Tuesday night’s town meeting, which is required when local officials consider spending more than $500,000 on any project.

The crowd approved the approved the spending for the new Sandy Hook Elementary School by a unanimous voice vote after a 7-minute meeting.

The money will be used for preparation, design and site work for the school, which will be built once the existing school is demolished.

The town plans an October referendum to approve spending the remainder of the $50 million in state funds set aside for the school.