“Informants”: Willoughby Forged Our Names

by Melissa Bailey | March 19, 2008 1:05 PM | | Comments (9)

IMG_0954willoughby.jpgOne woman, a supposed confidential informant in three homicides, told police that a detective forged her signature when filling out receipts for money — money she never got.

The allegation is one of several startling revelations in a series of previously sealed arrest warrants in the case of ex-Detective Clarence Willoughby (pictured).

Willoughby, a 24-year veteran of the force, resigned shortly before turning himself over to police on Feb. 6 on larceny and forgery charges. He is accused of pocketing thousands of dollars in informant money in four incidents spanning from 2003 to 2007; he has pleaded not guilty and retained defense attorney Norm Pattis.

Four affidavits filed in Willoughby’s case, previously sealed, have been opened to public view.

Click here to read the text of one of the affidavits, in which three “informants,” for whom Willoughby signed out informant money, testify they never cooperated and never got paid. (The Independent has redacted informants’ names, which appear in full on the documents.)

The charges cover $5,300 in informant funds spanning four incidents. One was a “shooting spree” in the Hill neighborhood from July 11 to 12, 2004. The three others are homicides: Herbert Fields’s death on Aug. 1, 2006; Robert Bennett’s on Nov. 27, 2006; and Domingo Rodriguez’s on July 12, 2006.

In each of those four incidents, Willoughby signed out informant money to pay one woman, Confidential Informant (CI) 01-02. He signed out over $3,000 for her, but according to the affidavits, she didn’t see a penny.

When internal affairs investigators interviewed the woman, she denied having worked on the cases, and said the signature by her CI number was not hers.

The supposed informant told police “she has lived out of state for the past five years and has not worked for the New Haven Police Department at any point during that time,” investigators wrote.

Other allegations revealed in the affidavits:

• Willoughby said he lied about an informant’s name because he didn’t want Lt. Billy White to know who the informant was. Willoughby later identified the informant, whom investigators interviewed. The informant first told police he was never paid more than $500 of the $1,500 he was supposed to get. Then he changed his story, saying he had been paid.

• Willoughby refers to a female informant as a “he” and to a male informant as a “she” when describing what information informants gave.

• Three of the four police reports make no reference to information obtained by a CI, even though Willoughby signed out informant money in each case.

Willoughby’s troubles are spilling over to state prosecutors, as his credibility is questioned in cases that rest on his work. Click here and here for the two latest examples, as reported by the Register’s Randall Beach.

Comments

Posted by: THREEIFIFTHS | March 19, 2008 7:06 PM

Heightsresident
You said that we police bashers are exsposed as self serving media hounds with egg on there faces.
You must have the whole egg carton on your face!!!
Wake up and smell the mackerel more and more this
Crooked cops credibility is sinking,Also i saw on the news that the signatures on the documents are not the informants.Hey heightsresident did you read in the media that manslaughter charges was dismissed due to the fact That Mr. Willoughby took the fifth!!! Hey Charlie how about 50years
and no parole you always say that for the street
crimnals. P.S. I forgot A Police Officer just got Fired in bridgeport of stealing hot dogs from a court house concession stand May be you heightsreident and the rest of you pro police surpports can may be write some letters on these two crooks be half!!!

Posted by: Common Sense | March 19, 2008 7:22 PM

Where there is smoke...most times there is fire!

Posted by: on whalley | March 20, 2008 9:29 AM

A few (in the case of the NHPD many) bad cops don't make all cops crooked. Conversely a few run ins with "nice" cops don't make all cops saints. Cops and politicians and teachers and monks and nuns are all just people. What causes some to put them up on pedestals is beyond me.

They all grunt on the toilet and look at their BM before they flush it. They all rot in the same dirt. They all have their own ideas, desires, wants and dislikes that make them all potentially corruptible.

I have to laugh whenever a cop gets caught being crooked and people jump on the "cops are pigs" bandwagon just as hard as I laugh at the anti-gunners out there who through no path of logic or reasoning or fact have concluded that somehow a badge makes you worthy of using a firearm to protect yourself but without said badge you're destined to massacre a preschool class for no apparent reason other than that you have a gun.

I don't distrust cops any more than I distrust my fellow man. I don't trust cops any more than I trust my fellow man. The unchecked amount of trust I am expected to have for cops paired with the magic "authority" some great mystical force has apparently granted them over my life is what makes me inclined to distrust the "position" they hold far more than I distrust the individual representing that position.

Posted by: Heights Resident | March 20, 2008 5:53 PM

Threefiths

Where do I start, the comment I made about egg on the cop bashers faces refered to the scandal in the police lock up, and how the community has come out in droves to support the cops.

Before you comment and single me out learn to read and retain the information. Hey and while we are on the subject of reading, the media you refer to is the New Haven Register and if you bothered to read the article the witnesses recanted there statements as well, so blame can not be put entirely on Mr. Willoughby.

Lastly I don't defend the honor of every cop you happen to read something negative about, they should have fired the baffoon in Bridgeport, he did not deserve to wear the badge, but maybe you can defend him now that he's not a cop. Unlike you I am man enough to step up and say when something is wrong and give credit when it's due.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | March 20, 2008 11:37 PM

Heightsresident
You state that unlike me you are man enought to step up and say when something is wrong and give credit when it's due,I am waiting for you to step
up and face the fact the you man Willoughby is hiding something by taking the fifth!!!I agree with common sense comment.You say give credit when credit is due,I will give credit as soon as these crooked cops are put in jail and take there
first shower and drop there bar of soap!!!!

Posted by: Heights Resident | March 21, 2008 11:12 AM

Threefiths

Like always you side step the issue and respond with ignorant banter, and poor grammer. You should just man up and say you hate all cops and be done with it, join the ranks of liberal cop bashers and free youself.

I responded to all of you inquires and you reply with that old tired " drop the soap " bit. GROW UP Threefiths, try a more cerebral response in the future stop embarrassing yourself and your cause.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | March 21, 2008 12:55 PM

Heights Resident
What issue am i side steping when it is clear that i am talking about crooked cops. If you would read my post at no time did i say that all cops are crooks, You need to read my post or is it maybe that due to the fact that you head was put on in a carpenter shop,Also you like to use the term liberal alot, Which by the way i am not a liberal or conservative,I am a person who is against any crooked cops and anyone who would
do wrong, But the problem is when it is a crooked cop to me it has more of a impact because you expect better from them,How many people are siting
in jail because some low life crooked cop plant drugs or told lies in a police report!!! So i will tell you one more time read my post I am talking about crooked cops!!!!P.S. New haven police do not have a age limit how come you do not join?

Posted by: Shakespeare | March 22, 2008 9:02 PM

Is this why I see so many policemen buying their coffee at Willoughby's?

Posted by: Heights Resident | March 23, 2008 7:37 AM

Threefiths

Why would my head be on a carpenters shop??????, what do you mean by that term?, did you just make that up?.

You have always maintained that cop are croooked, you have never come to the defense of any cop, because you lump them all together and are quick to point out the bad ones, but never the good they do.


Hey and your comment about criminals, how by the way, your always defending, the jails are full of the innocent, just ask them, I have never heard a con say " I did it, I'm guilty " just ask one.

Lastly on your comment of me actually becoming a police officer Why would I want to risk my life to defend a city and it's resident when there are people like you who are always on the ready to bash my efforts at every turn and condemn them. No thanks, maybe you should take the test and see first hand how liberal's treat anyone in authority ( ie. cop's, soldiers ).

It's ironic how you bash them and they are out there defending your right to bash them.

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