Connecticut police chief, previously arrested for domestic violence incident, faces new charges

A local police chief in Connecticut who was previously arrested for an alleged domestic violence incident faces additional charges, state police said.

East Lyme Police Chief Michael Finkelstein was charged Monday with making false statements, violating a restraining order and disturbing the peace, NBC Connecticut reported. The 53-year-old police chief was initially arrested on second-degree disturbing the peace and breach of the peace charges following an investigation into an alleged disturbance at his East Lyme home earlier this month.

According to the arrest warrants, authorities went to the defendant’s apartment on June 5 and encountered a woman who claimed that Finkelstein had hit her during an argument the previous evening.

She said she and Finklestein, who had been drinking all night, got into an argument because he was texting a co-worker with whom he allegedly had a past affair. During an argument over his work phone, the officer struck her in the face with an “upward palm strike,” the arrest warrant affidavit states, according to the Hartford Courant.

The police noted in the arrest warrant that when they arrived at the scene they found numerous visible injuries on the woman, including “dried blood on her nose, upper lip and chin.”

Finkelstein has since denied hitting the woman, claiming instead that she punched herself in the face while they were wrestling over his phone. Nevertheless, the police chief agreed to surrender his police-issued firearm and he was placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

The new charges stem from an incident involving the same woman that occurred on June 18, 2023, according to the Courant. After Finkelstein’s arrest earlier this month, local police asked state authorities to “reinvestigate” the incident. A confrontation between the two at the time was also sparked by Finkelstein texting another woman. The alleged victim claimed that during the struggle, Finkelstein violently grabbed her, took a remote control from her and pressed it “really hard” to the side of her nose, the affidavit states.

She said children were present when this happened.

The woman also told police that Finkelstein had “arguments” with other people in the house, but that he had cut her off before he could continue speaking.

Finkelstein denied in an interview earlier this month that there was any violence during the 2023 incident. He said the woman called 911 because one of the child’s hands was injured while being buckled into his car seat. When asked if he got into the vehicle to prevent the woman from getting out, Finkelstein stopped the conversation.

In a more recent interview, the woman retracted the allegations of violence and told police that she was simply emotional at the time.