Re: 4/17/03 - Hartford Courant: New Haven Police Chief Likely To Take Retirement
New Haven Police Chief Likely To Take Retirement
April 17, 2003
By MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY, Courant Staff Writer
NEW HAVEN -- Police Chief Melvin Wearing, the city's first African American chief, is expected to announce his retirement today after six years in office.
A press conference is scheduled for noon.
Wearing, 59, has spent more than 30 years in the department, serving as head of the detective division and, later, assistant chief. He took over as chief in 1997 when Chief Nicholas Pastore stepped down amid revelations that he had fathered a child with a convicted prostitute.
The homicide rate dropped substantially during Wearing's tenure - the result, police say, of community policing, a program Wearing inherited from Pastore.
Still, Wearing's years as chief were tumultuous at times. He presided over the Suzanne Jovin murder investigation, one of the highest-profile cases in department history. A 21-year-old Yale student, Jovin was stabbed to death on Dec. 4, 1998. Police initially named James Van De Velde, her thesis adviser, as one of the lead suspects, but they never gathered enough evidence to charge him.
The police have been heavily criticized for their handling of the case, which remains unsolved. Van De Velde has filed a lawsuit against the department, saying that they ruined his life, and has urged Wearing to turn the case over to federal authorities. He has refused.
The department also was the subject of intense scrutiny a couple of years ago when the city's two highest-ranking detectives left the force amid accusations that they withheld crucial evidence from a major murder investigation in North Haven.
Wearing could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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