27 July—Déjà vu all over again? Remember how, three years ago, Connecticut State Police (CSP) Detective Sgt. John McDonald, while drunk and driving a police car, ran a stop sign in Oxford causing major property damage and permanent personal injury to others, fled the scene to avoid a breath test, and essentially got away with it—only to continue his crime spree while on the job, resulting in his resignation? He likely was offered that option, rather than being terminated. And of course the criminal scumbag gets to keep his lucrative pension.

Well, at 9:30 a couple of nights ago, in Brookfield, State Police Detective Sgt. Catherine Koeppel, driving a two-ton-plus probably souped-up CSP Dodge Charger at high speed, rear-ended young Jessica Gullusci’s ton-and-a-half Kia Optima that was stopped at a red light at an intersection on Route 7. While the innocent Kia suffered major damage—“the trunk was in the back seat,” according to Ms. Gullusci, as confirmed by a picture of her car—happily, Sgt. Koeppel’s victim suffered what appears to be somewhat less severe injury than McDonald’s victims.

And, “with screeching tires,” according to Jessica, Kate the cop sped away, not even bothering to check on damage or injury. Why? It doesn’t take Sgt. Koeppel’s two degrees in criminal justice to know you’re not supposed to do that. Anyway, evidently Detective Kate was able to drive her car home, whence it was towed to the Southbury Troop A barracks, where it remains sequestered, unavailable for public scrutiny.

Similarly—and not surprisingly—the police haven’t been forthcoming with details about the incident. They do confirm that Sgt. Koeppel was driving the car that rear-ended Ms. Gullusci’s Kia, that she fled the scene, and—wait for it—that she’s still on the job.

Skipping the scene of an accident a person has caused, like the CSP implicitly admit Sgt. Koeppel did, is clearly evading responsibility under state law. It’s a crime pure and simple—a misdemeanor or felony, depending on your lawyer’s relationship with the prosecutor and whether you’re a cop—that could get you sent up the river for 20 years. Unless you’re a state cop, of course.

McDonald ran the stop sign because he was three sheets to the wind and evaded responsibility to avoid a breathalyzer test. Why didn’t Sgt. Koeppel stop or apparently even slow down for a car waiting at a red light and why did she speed off after hitting the stationary vehicle? Why hasn’t she been charged with evading responsibility or anything else, as a civilian would be? And why is she back at work?

DSP spinners say the investigation is “active and ongoing.” I shouldn’t be at all surprised if the CSP investigators determined that the fault was all Jessica Gullusci’s for being stopped at a red light, thus causing an obstruction and impeding Sgt. Koeppel’s progress, wherever the hell she was going like a bat out of hell . . .