Naugatuck Police Officer on Judge: “He’s Off His Rocker.”

April 28th last year brought the Naugatuck police department’s fifth encounter with Judge of Probate Peter Mariano for either “a welfare check, and/or alcohol issue,” according to a police report from that day. More would follow.

Mariano, who is seeking a sixth four-yer term in November, had a woman removed from his home earlier in the year. According to an officer who responded, the judge “picked up some broad from New York” and needed the police to get her out of his house.

The chief clerk in Mariano’s court called the police on April 28th after an alarming conversation with the judge. “Here we are again,” the Naugatuck officer tells Jennifer Finlay. In the video above, Finlay explains the dire situation she has tried to manage and contain.

Jennifer Finlay and Andrew Finlay are listed with Mariano as members of Hillside Real Estate, LLC. The business was formed in 2020, according to records filed at the Office of the Secretary of the State.

When Mariano arrived home on April 28th, Naugatuck officers were waiting at the bottom of his driveway. Before agreeing to exit his car, Mariano told the police officers on the scene that he is the probate judge. Mariano failed the two-part field sobriety test and refused the blood alcohol breath test when he was taken to the police station. He told the officer, according to the police report, “I’m scared at how high it’s going to be.”

Mariano, a Republican, is challenging party-endorsed candidate Rosa Rebimbas in an August 9th primary in the district’s four towns, Beacon Falls, Middlebury, Naugatuck, and Prospect. Democrats in the district nominated Mariano as their candidate after he served four days in jail in May.

Because Mariano won the Democratic nomination in May, a win in the August 9th Republican primary leave him without an opponent in the November election.

Published July 18, 2022.