Police report: Nick Simmons “clearly lying” as Yale police sought intruder into woman’s apartment in 2011 incident. Democrat dismisses earlier charge for public urination as youthful idiocy.

A 2011 Yale police report accuses Nick Simmons, the Democratic candidate for state senator in the state’s 36th Senate District, as misdirecting and lying to campus police as they sought to apprehend an intruder into a neighboring female student’s apartment bedroom in a building occupied by students, two blocks from the Yale campus.

The report arose out of a complaint by a Yale student who had been confronted by an unfamiliar drunk and agitated male in her apartment at 10:45 p.m. on February 16, 2011. The woman was sitting on her bed when the man entered her bedroom, screamed at her and then lunged at her as he attempted to grab her arms. The woman student was able to flee to another bedroom in the apartment, blocking the door with the aid of an apartment mate. Several minutes later, the two female students took refuge behind a locked bathroom door, as the male Yale student screamed at them and caused damage in the kitchen and other bathroom. From the locked bathroom, the two students were able to call a neighbor for help.  

Two of the seven students who responded to the call for help recognized the intruder. One of them escorted him to a nearby apartment on the same floor “where he was left with his close friend, Nicholas Simmons.”

The police report continues:

Two Yale police officers arrived, spoke with the students and learned the intruder had been taken to Simmons’s suite. One of the officers left voice messages on [the intruder’s] and Simmons’s phones. 

At approximately 24:00 hrs., Simmons returned this officer’s telephone call. Upon advising him I was with the YPD investigating the above incident, Simmons hung up the telephone. 

Shortly thereafter, Simmons again telephoned this officer to inquire as to why we wished to speak with him. Simmons stated he had been asleep in his room for the past three hours. While Simmons was making this call, I was standing outside his apartment. The doors to his apartment were still wide open and the apartment was clearly still unoccupied. At this point I realized Simmons was actually standing in the first floor hallway making the above telephone call. As I walked down the stairs, Simmons fled to an unknown location. 

While checking the exterior of the building Simmons again telephoned this officer and once again said he was in his room. Upon returning to room #302 I met with Simmons in the hallway. He stated he had been in his apartment all night and insisted he had no knowledge of [the intruder’s] whereabouts. Simmons was once again clearly lying. I explained to Simmons if he told any further lies or again misdirected these officers in our investigation, he would be charged with Interfering With a Police Officer, (53a-167a).

The incident ended when police located the intruder at 12:20 a.m. at an entry way to Berkley College. He stated he had consumed 15 shots of vodka and numerous glasses of beers at a party that night. His difficulty walking and speaking caused police to call an ambulance and refer him to Yale administrators. 

Reached Monday, Simmons wrote, “Nearly 15 years ago while I was in college, a person I knew, who was a sophomore when I was a senior was brought into my apartment by friends who said he was making a scene in our building while heavily intoxicated. It was clear this individual had way too much to drink and I told him to leave our building and then escorted him out downstairs. I was unaware of his actions until they were explained to me later that evening and the following morning. As a bystander in this situation who learned of the events after they occurred, it was crystal clear then and remains today that this kind of behavior is unacceptable, should not be tolerated, and must be avoided moving forward.”

The intruder was charged with breach of peace. It takes little imagination to know the incident would likely have been handled far differently in different neighborhoods several blocks from the privileged environs of Yale University.

The 2011 incident was not Simmons’s first encounter with members of the Yale police force–who are vested with all the powers of other police officers in Connecticut. In 2007, two plain clothes officers in the Community Impact Unit were patrolling on York Street near a “an extremely large crowd exiting from Toad’s Place.” The officers, according to their report, “saw Nicholas Simmons emerge from the large crowd in front of Toad’s Place. Simmons walked up alongside the building and began to urinate in plain view in front of the large crowd, all the while talking on the cell phone.”

Simmons was charged with Creating a Public Disturbance, a violation of Connecticut General Statutes §53a-181a. Simmons downplayed his arrest, writing Monday,  “I’m sure many of us would like to go back in time and smack our 18 year old selves for being idiots.”

Simmons is challenging incumbent Republican Ryan Fazio in the district that includes Greenwich, New Canaan, and part of Stamford.

Published October 21, 2024.