Tanner, the 3-year-old Vizsla, developed extreme facial swelling in reaction to a timber rattlesnake bite on August 16.St.Luke’s School sophomore Teddy Balkind died during a hockey game against Brunswick School in Greenwich on Jan.6.Infowars founder Alex Jones is questioned by plaintiff’s attorney Chris Mattei during testimony at the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn.Thursday, Sept.22, 2022.The year started with big stories in local sports — a tragic hockey death and an apology after a 84-point deficit in a basket ball game.
It didn’t let up from there.A mechanic found art worth millions; one of the few venomous snakes in the state bit a dog in a rare attack; the allegedly haunted Annabelle doll left the confines of the Warren Museum for Mohegan Sun; Alex Jones was ordered to pay big for his Sandy Hook lies and more.The final month of the year marked the 10 year anniversary of one of the most major news events in recent history: The Sandy Hook shooting.The anniversary was honored by remembering victims to looking toward the future.These were the biggest stories of 2022 (in chronological order, based on readership): Sacred Heart Academy Head Coach: Jason Kirck during girls basketball action against West Haven in West Haven, Conn., on Friday Jan.10, 2020.
The first Monday of the year saw one 2022’s most-read stories.
Sacred Heart Academy issued an apology and suspended its head coach Jason Kirck after its girls varsity basketball team beat Lyman Hall 92-4 in a SCC game in Hamden.The score turned heads across the state, prompting debate over whether it was bad sportsmanship.Twelve players scored for Sacred Heart Academy, led by Rosa Rizzitelli’s 13.
Rizzitelli also had 12 rebounds, five steals and four assists.As a team, Sacred Heart Academy made five 3-pointers and made 15 of 19 free throw attempts.Lyman Hall’s baskets were scored in the fourth quarter by senior reserve guard Mercedes Cestaro and sophomore Sophia LaPlant.The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference handbook, under its “Class Act” Sportsmanship Standards, states: Coaches will be aware of the competitive balance of contests and will manage the score in a manner that is sportsmanlike and respectful of opponents.Kirck was suspended for one game.- Scott Ericson Read more: Sacred Heart Academy apologizes, suspends coach after 92-4 girls basketball score against Lyman Hall Benjamin Edward “Teddy” Balkind St.
Luke’s School hockey player Teddy Balkind died from injuries suffered during a game at Brunswick School in Greenwich on Jan 6.Police said the 16-year old was upright and on his skates when an opposing player’s leg was in the air and a skate hit his neck.“There are no words adequate to this moment, and I know all of us will support each other as best as we can,” St.Luke’s Head of School Mark Davis wrote to the school community.
A sophomore at St.Luke’s, Balkind attended New Canaan public schools for elementary school.Balkind also skated for the New Canaan Winter Club throughout his youth hockey career, New Canaan police said on Instagram.Tributes to Balkind made it all the way to the NHL.
The Boston Bruins and New York Rangers hung jerseys with Balkinds name near their benches earlier in the year.The New York Rangers also honored Balkind before a game at Madison Square Garden in January, donning his name and No.5 on New York sweaters in warmup.Balkind’s untimely death opened up a debate on neck guards during hockey games — which the players were not wearing.
The New England Preparatory School Athletic Council follows most rules of the NCAA, which in turn follows USA Hockey’s guidelines.Neither USA Hockey nor the NCAA mandate the use of neck guards.The conversation went national with the New York Times picking up the story.This month, players from Brunswick and Loomis Chaffee stood with sticks raised in a moment of silence prior to the start of their season-opening game at Hartong Rink to honor Teddy.
On the balcony high above the ice a memorial plaque cast in bronze hangs in Balkind’s honor, engraved with the poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E.Housman.
The space has been renamed “The Balkind Balcony.” – Robert Marchant, Scott Ericson, Jeff Jacobs, Paul Doyle, Michael Fornabaio
Read more: Teddy Balkind identified as St.Luke’s student who died after Brunswick hockey game in Greenwich, Bill would study use of hockey neck guards, other safety concerns in CT youth sports , ‘I pray others may be saved’: Safety kits installed at local hockey rinks after player’s death, Brunswick hockey honors Teddy Balkind with ‘The Balkind Balcony’ Jared Whipple, a car mechanic from Waterbury, found a large art collection from Francis Hines in a dumpster in Watertown in 2017.In 2017, Jared Whipple, a car mechanic from Waterbury, retrieved hundreds of large canvasses with car parts painted on them a friend had found.They turned out to be paintings by Connecticut artist Francis Hines and were worth “millions.” “I immediately started researching,” said Whipple, who spent the next four years doing research on Hines and contacting the artist’s friends and family.After years of research and restoration, the mechanic announced in April that he was ready to start selling the pieces through collaborative exhibitions with the Hollis Taggart galleries.Art curator and historian Peter Hastings Falk estimated that Hines’ “wrapped” paintings could be sold at around $22,000 and his drawings at around $4,500 — which would make the collection found by Whipple to be worth millions of dollars if sold in its entirety.
Whipple did not disclose exactly how many pieces he retrieved from the trash but said there are some he will not sell.
Hines developed his career in New York’s Greenwich Village and kept his life’s work store in the Watertown barn where Whipple found the art.
The artist died in 2016 at age 96 and has two living sons living in New York and Florida.- Adriana Morga Read more: A CT mechanic found hundreds of pieces of art in a dumpster.
They’re worth ‘millions.’ Pedro Panjon, right, talks on the phone in the yard of his Danbury home.Panjon is the father of three children who were killed by their mother on Whaley Street in Danbury.Pedro Panjon said he was “shattered” when he returned home from work to find a letter from his wife, explaining a tragic scene he encountered.
Danbury police said Sonia Loja, 36, killed her children , Junior Panjon, 12, Joselyn Panjon, 10, and Jonael Panjon, 5, in late July before killing herself.The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed the children died by strangulation while Loja died by hanging.Panjon said the horrific discovery came as a complete shock to him.He said he did not know his wife needed help.In the days following, a growing memorial was placed at the front door of the home as many family, friends and neighbors gathered to mourn their deaths.
The memorial included pictures posted on the front door of the children, who brought their father great joy.“Happy, joyful, sociable,” said Lanjon, describing his children’s personalities.“Normal, like any happy kids.” Representatives from the state Office of Early Childhood visited the home four times before the deaths following an anonymous complaint about an illegal day care being run on the property, a spokesperson for the agency said.During its last visit on June 29, it appeared Lojas had shut down her business, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
– Peter Yankowski, Alex Putterman, Christine Dempsey Read more: Danbury dad ‘shattered’ after wife kills children and herself Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn.In August, the mother of a man who died at Yale-New Haven Hospital last year filed a lawsuit claiming the hospital staff’s negligence caused the death of her 23-year-old son who was left alone for more than seven hours to die in a hallway at Yale-New Haven, his mother said.According to the lawsuit, at approximately 6:25 p.m.on May 10, 2021, an ambulance responded to a call from the Peter’s Rock Association Park in East Haven.Ambulance personnel found William Miller being treated by firefighters from the East Haven Fire Department.Miller arrived at Yale-New Haven by ambulance at 7:13 p.m., according to the lawsuit.Yale-New Haven medical personnel placed Miller on a stretcher and positioned the stretcher in an “ambulance bay” at the emergency department.According to video, at 1:56 a.m., a nurse checks on Miller for the first time in seven hours.
At this point, the suit states, he is without a pulse, his skin is a blue-gray color and his pupils are fixed and dilated.The family’s lawyer, Sean McElligott, said, “Billy’s death was tragic and his family and loved ones are devastated by the utter lack of care provided at the hospital.I will work hard to make sure nothing like this happens to another family.” A Yale-New Haven Hospital spokeswoman said, “Even in the best organizations gaps in care may occur.
When they do, our goal is to acknowledge them, learn from them, and ensure that we minimize any chance that they ever occur again.We have offered our sincere apologies to the family of the patient and are working towards a resolution.” – Daniel Tepfer Read more: Lawsuit: Man dies after being left unattended at Yale-New Haven Hospital for 7 hours Tanner, the 3-year-old Vizsla, developed extreme facial swelling in reaction to a timber rattlesnake bite on August 16.Also in August, Robert Murray’s two dogs were enjoying a routine afternoon frolic around the backyard of their home when smaller dog, Listo, a 10-year-old miniature Pinscher mix, had spotted something in the grass .But before Murray could reach the spot where Listo was barking, his other dog, Tanner, a 3-year-old Vizsla, raced to join the investigation.Wielding a cane following a recent surgery, Murray said he walked toward his dogs and realized what caught their attention: A poisonous timber rattlesnake.
Murray rushed the two dogs to Pieper Veterinary Emergency Hospital in Middletown, where they were given anti-venom and other medications to stabilize them.Both dogs made it back home within a few days.And it turns out venomous bites are rare in the Nutmeg State and only two varieties of venomous snakes call Connecticut home.- Austin Mirmina Read more: Venomous timber rattlesnake attacks dogs in Glastonbury yard New Haven police Sgt.Shayna Kendall August’s big month of news ended when New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson recommended Sgt.
Shayna Kendall be let go after a highly critical report by Internal Affairs over her encounter with a nurse who beeped her horn at Kendall when the car Kendall was driving failed to proceed after a stoplight turned green in the early morning of July 7, 2021.Kendall, in the report, told investigators there was construction underway on Crescent Street that day.The nurse responded that the road had been milled, but there was no work in progress that day.
A public works official later confirmed that for the police.But Kendall testified that it was an active site.The police board unanimously agreed to terminate Kendall, the deputy commander at the police training academy, stating that a major obligation of officers is to always be truthful.- Mary E.O’Leary Red more: New Haven police board fires cop who lied about traffic stop Infowars founder Alex Jones is questioned by plaintiff’s attorney Chris Mattei during testimony at the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn.Thursday, Sept.22, 2022.After nearly a decade of spreading the lie that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay more than a billion dollars to families of Sandy Hook victims he defamed .
His first loss came after a judge in Texas ordered he pay $49 million to one family.Jones then attempted to turn his weekslong Waterbury trial into a media-and-judicial-system-bashing fiasco.The controversial host refused to give a direct answer about if or when he’d appear in the Connecticut trial .He sometimes showed up unannounced, holding press conferences on the courthouse steps while the trial was underway.
As families took the stand to share stories of how Jones’ lies impacted them, Jones took to his Infowars show to openly mock Judge Barbara Belli s while watching the trial live.He continued to spread lies and after testifying in court, turned a heated exchange into a commercial for his crypto currency webasite.Ultimately, Bellis ordered he pay the families $965 million in damages, later the judge tacked on another $473 million , bringing the total he must pay to about $1.4 billion.There’s no telling how much money the families will see.
Bellis had to order Jones not to move assets out of the country to avoid paying and the internet host filed has made multiple attempts at skirting the fines by filing for bankruptcy .
– Lisa Backus, Rob Reyser, Jordan Nathaniel Fenster, Daniel Figueroa IV Read more: What’s Alex Jones’ net worth and how much has he made from Sandy Hook denial? , Sandy Hook families react to Alex Jones’ $965M bill: ‘I just wish I could call my mom and tell her’ , Alex Jones turns heated courtroom exchange from CT trial into cryptocurrency ad , Alex Jones ordered to pay $473M more in Sandy Hook case, bringing total to $1.4B Alairae Lewis dressed as Annabelle during the Warren’s Seekers of the Supernatural Paracon at Mohegan Sun on Saturday, Oct.29, 2022 From its summertime announcement , into spooky season and beyond, news that the Warren’ Annabelle — the allegedly haunted Raggedy Ann doll made famous in the “Conjuring” films — was leaving its Monroe confines .Tony Spera, son-in-law to Ed and Lorraine Warren and curator of the Warren Museum, announced the shuttered museum ’s collection would head to Mohegan Sun for a paranormal convention.More than 6,000 people traveled to the event .Quaker Hill resident Alairae Lewis came to the event dressed as the movie version of Annabelle.Others, like Alena Wilson from Kansas City, Missouri traveled long distances to see the doll.The real Annabelle doll is kept at the museum in Monroe, where it’s behind a locked case with a sign made by Ed Warren that reads “positively do not open.” Though not quite as menacing-looking as its movie counterpart, which sits in a glass case across from the original doll, Annabelle has a commanding presence over the museum.
The doll was given as a gift to a Hartford nurse in 1970.Once she brought it home, she and her roommates reported unexplained behavior coming from the toy, according to Spera.The Warrens were called in to investigate and they claimed that the doll was being manipulated by the spirit of an outside entity.After an exorcism at the apartment, the Warrens agreed to take the doll.- Andrew DaRosa, Daniel Figueroa IV, Joseph Tucci Read more: ‘Haunted’ Annabelle doll is traveling around CT this Halloween: Here’s what to know , Inside the Warrens’ Occult Museum in CT where Annabelle ‘lives’ , WATCH: Take a video tour of CT’s Warrens Occult Museum before seeing items like Annabelle at Paracon , Annabelle leaves home: Seeking the supernatural in CT at the Warren’s Paracon It was a day that captured the attention of the country, from elected officials and advocates who stood up to try to drive the necessary change to prevent future tragedies, to the caregivers who went from assuming their children were coming home that day from school to simply hoping.Dec.14, 2012 was the day 20 children and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School .The anniversary loomed heavy over the state, bolstered by the backdrop of Alex Jones’s Connecticut defamation trial and the more than $1 billion award to families he defamed over a decade.
“Ten years is a lot of time in the world, but here it’s like yesterday,” said Alan Martin, a resident of Sandy Hook and Newtown for 50 years, who helped direct the construction of the newly opened Sandy Hook Memorial.“The world unfortunately found out where Sandy Hook was under the most trying of circumstances — people didn’t know Newtown until that fateful day, and now the whole world is focused on Sandy Hook.” Hearst Connecticut Media asked what happens after a town and nation mark 10 years since one of its most shocking mass shootings .The memorial has been constructed, a new school built and the survivors of that day have grown up, while the families of the 26 victims have found their own way to mourn those killed.All the while, the tragedy remains an ever present part of the local community and the drive for change across the country.
– Hearst Connecticut Media Staff Read more: Sandy Hook: One day changed everything in Newtown.
But in America, much is the same.Remembering the 26 Sandy Hook shooting victims, 10 years later , ‘Like yesterday’: A fractured but resilient Newtown marks 10 years since Sandy Hook tragedy.
