Ex-Judicial Marshal Accused Of Sex Trafficking Must Decide On Plea Deal

Former Waterbury judicial marshal Michael A. Connelly, accused of promoting prostitution and human trafficking while posing as a law enforcement officer, must decide by Thursday whether to take a plea bargain that would send him to prison for one year.

If he agrees to the deal, the prosecutor in the case will have done something only one other prosecutor has done in Connecticut – win a conviction under the state's 10-year-old anti-human trafficking law, a law that has come under fire in recent weeks when questions about its lack of use were raised at the state Capitol.

Prosecutor Susan W. Hatfield of the Office of the Chief State's Attorney made the offer last month to Connelly, an employee of the state for three decades and the brother of former longtime Waterbury state's attorney John Connelly, who died in 2012.

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