Middlebury Acting Police Chief Fran Dabbo reports that on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 10:28 p.m., Middlebury police officers responded to Forest Avenue (off Straits Turnpike) in response to a threatening complaint. On their arrival, the officers met with two complainants.
The complainants, a female juvenile and her coworker, explained they had turned around in their neighbor’s driveway and then backed down the street and stopped between her yard and the yard of her neighbor, Mike Rinaldi. She stated that the suspect, who she knows as Mike Rinaldi, approached the car they were in with a gun in his hand. Both complainants said the gun was pointed at the ground.
They said Rinaldi yelled, “We just had a robbery. You need to get out of here.” The juvenile female then ran into her house and yelled for her father, who called the police.
Officers Bill Kalvaitis and Paul Pelletier went to Rinaldi’s home to continue their investigation. Rinaldi admitted to confronting the two youths who were in the car, but said he had a stick, not a gun.
After the officers completed their investigation, they placed Rinaldi, 58, of Forest Avenue in Waterbury under arrest. They charged him with first-degree threatening, second-degree reckless endangerment, carrying a pistol without a permit, and breach of peace. They seized a revolver and a registered AR15. Rinaldi was released on a $5,000 bond pending an August court appearance.
