However, he said, when police checked the scanner they found that more than 30 IDs used by students to get into the bar had not been put through the scanner. Perez said the staff at the bar were using a handheld scanner that took a photograph of each ID presented and would verify the computer strip on the back with a database.

Gregory Kapetaneas, the owner of the Golden Star, had claimed that his staff “scanned in” the IDs for everyone who entered the bar on April 5, and that the machine verified all of them. “Now a case will come up for a disciplinary hearing two weeks after all the facts are in,” Straubel said. But Police Captain Mark Straubel said that in the past, disciplinary cases against officers were allowed to languish for months on former Chief Joseph Gaudett’s desk. While the alleged sexual assault and the raid happened before Perez became police chief, he refused to cast blame on the former administration. Police union President Charles Paris declined to comment. Smith and Talavera “certainly knew what the policy is, and they are going to be made to pay for it,” he said.īoth officers have been placed on administrative duty, pending further investigation. Perez said it has been against the Bridgeport Police Department’s policy for at least 32 years for officers to work off-duty security jobs at bars. “Investigators are going through hours and hours of surveillance video because this type of conduct will not be tolerated,” he said.

He said the city’s Office of Internal Affairs is investigating reports that Smith, Talavera and perhaps other officers have been working at the bar for some time.

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