Posted on 01/27/2009 6:11:57 PM PST by Koblenz
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A Connecticut legislator was with a state employee last Wednesday night before she was found dead the next afternoon of hypothermia, Rocky Hill police said Tuesday.
Rep. James A. O'Rourke III, a Cromwell Democrat, provided investigators with a written statement on Tuesday, said Lt. John Herbst.
He told police he left O'Leary's Digger McDuff's Tavern in Cromwell around the same time as 41-year-old Carol Jean Sinigalli of Rocky Hill, at about 11:30 p.m. He said Sinigalli, who was in an altercation earlier that evening with another patron, ran out to his car, pulled open a back door and jumped in.
Someone had called police to the bar because of the fight, but Sinigalli and O'Rourke were gone by the time they arrived. Sinigalli left behind her coat, shoes and purse. Her car was sitting in the bar's parking lot.
O'Rourke told police he planned to drive Sinigalli home because he thought she would be a dangerous driver. Rocky Hill police are awaiting toxicology tests to determine if Sinigalli was intoxicated that night.
O'Rourke said he knew the woman through a mutual friend but did not know exactly where she lived. During their ride together in the car, O'Rourke said Sinigalli became uncooperative and belligerent, knocking down his rear view mirror, garage door opener and glasses before eventually jumping out of the car.
He said she ran across the street. Temperatures that night were in the single digits. O'Rourke said he did not know Sinigalli was barefoot.
"I believe that when she left the car, she was close to her home and knew where she was going," O'Rourke told reporters in the written statement.
Sinigalli, an employee at the Department of Motor Vehicles, was found by a cross-country skier at 4:45 p.m. about 10 or 12 feet from some railroad tracks. She was wearing blue jeans, a shirt and light sweater.
Police believe she walked barefoot for about a half mile before collapsing. They could see her footprints in the snow.
Sinigalli was initially identified the same night she was found. A patrol officer recognized a picture of the body as that of a woman he arrested on Dec. 22 for driving while intoxicated.
On Friday, the day after the body was discovered, O'Rourke's attorney contacted the police and said his client might have a connection to the case. That led police to visit the bar, where they discovered Sinigalli's belongings.
O'Rourke's attorney set up and interview with the lawmaker and police on Saturday. They agreed O'Rourke would provide a written statement.
"He's been very cooperative," Herbst said.
Herbst said the case is still under investigation. "But, at present, there is no criminal aspect to it."
A call was left seeking comment with O'Rourke. As assistant majority whip, O'Rourke represents the 32nd Assembly District, which includes Cromwell, Portland and Middletown. He first began serving in the General Assembly in 1991.
You generally dump your pick ups out by the railroad track in 5 degree temperatures with no shoes, then drive off? I just don't believe that's so.
Then again, as you said, you aren't married with children. If what another FReeper said is true, that this guy was married with 3 children, he had a whole lot to cover up.
Yeah, and worst of all you got Chris Dodd as Senator!
..pulled open his back door and jumped in..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I guess I should have been a Dem.
There seems to be an ‘epidemic’ of young ladies hopping in the back seat of their cars in the middle of the night.
Ever since MJK, when leaving a bar, I would check the back of my pickup to make sure no SYT had jumped in....
I guess this D figured the ‘ole gal in the back seat’ line worked so well once it would work again...
No
I believe he lost something. Isn’t he still in the Federal Pen and due to be released in 2011?
That is correct, but in reference to the campaign from which the "dead girl or live boy" comment comes, he won with 62% of the vote against Republican Dave Treen. Interestingly, Treen is among those who has pushed for a pardon for Edwards.
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