Print

State Rep. Hector Robles Arrested

By Jenna Carlesso

March 01, 2011

State Rep. Hector Robles, who was fired from his job as a Hartford police officer in November for falsifying time cards to show he was on duty while working private jobs, has been charged with two counts of felony first-degree larceny.

Robles, a Democrat who represents the 6th District in south Hartford, was arrested this morning by investigators from the Chief State's Attorney's Office, spokesman Mark Dupuis said. He turned himself in at the Wethersfield Police Department, and was later released on a written promise to appear. He will be arraigned in Superior Court in Hartford on March 8.

Robles did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

He was fired from the police department one day before the Nov. 2 election. He was found to be in violation of several articles of the Hartford Police Department code of conduct, including conduct unbecoming an employee, knowingly or willfully making a false entry in a department record and intentional failure to comply with lawful orders, procedures, directives or regulations, oral or written.

Robles was elected to a second term on Nov. 2 after easily fending off three write-in candidates.

Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts ordered the department's internal affairs division last year to investigate allegations of improper documentation in Robles' weekly time cards and conflicts in Robles' regular work schedule, private-duty jobs and overtime hours.

The investigation stemmed from a police captain's review of the dispatch log system, which records officers' activities during their shifts.

Robles, a 15-year police veteran, was not online with the Hartford police dispatch center during some of his assigned shifts. On others, his reported activities didn't match what was reported on the dispatch log system, according to an internal affairs report.

The report detailed numerous occasions in which Robles wrote on his time card that he worked a regular police shift when, in fact, he was working a private job, collecting an amount identical to his hourly pay. Robles worked private jobs for Connecticut Natural Gas, the Metropolitan District Commission, Flow Assessment Construction Co. and Seaboard Drilling Assessment Construction Co.

The internal affairs report was forwarded to the Chief State's Attorney's Office, which investigated the matter.

Investigators determined that Robles defrauded the department out of $10,651 between Sept. 2008 and Sept. 2009, according to an arrest warrant.

Robles' lawyer, R. Bartley Halloran, told the Courant in November that Robles had no plans to resign from the legislature or the Hartford Democratic Town Committee, and planned to appeal the police department's decision.