Sexual Assault Charges Against Two Shelton, CT, Firefighters Dismissed

The victim decided she didn't want the case to proceed but the Shelton firefighters admitted there was probable cause for their arrest.

By Ethan Fry

Source Connecticut Post, Bridgeport (TNS)

Sept. 29, 2025

5 min read

Sep. 26—MILFORD — Sexual assault charges lodged more than three years ago against two Shelton firefighters, one of whom is also a Trumbull police sergeant, were dismissed Friday after a prosecutor said the victim did not want the case prosecuted. Before the case was dismissed, however, the two men admitted in court that police had probable cause to seek arrest warrants against them.

Sgt. Matthew Perkowski and John Scollin, a captain in the Echo Hose Hook & Ladder Co. 1, both faced a charge of first-degree sexual assault in the Sept. 6, 2020 incident involving a woman they both knew. Perkowski was also charged with second-degree assault.

But attorneys representing both men have maintained that the encounter was consensual, and blamed the arrests on local politics.

The defendants appeared Friday afternoon at Superior Court in Milford before Judge Peter McShane, where Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney Howard Stein said that a lawyer representing the alleged victim had reached out following the initial arrests in the case in June 2022 saying she did not want the case prosecuted.

Her position had not changed since, Stein and her lawyer, Richard Lynch, told the judge.

"She does not want to have a prosecution," Stein said. "She does not intend to voluntarily cooperate. If compelled, she will repudiate the statement she gave to police in September 2020."

"She does not want to be a witness against these people," Lynch said. "She has moved on."

Because of that, the prosecutor said he didn't think the case could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. He then nolled, or dropped, the charge.

Nolle, short for nolle prosequi, is the Latin term for the prosecutor's decision not to prosecute a case. Ordinarily, nolled charges would be dismissed if not reopened within 13 months, but Stein said he would not object to a dismissal Friday if Scollin and Perkowski agreed that Shelton police had probable cause to arrest both men.

After questioning from the judge, both did so.

"Do you agree that the arresting agency had probable cause to arrest?" McShane asked them.

"Yes, your honor," they said, after which the judge dismissed the cases officially.

Both men declined to comment while leaving the courthouse.

Perkowski had earlier rejected a plea offer calling on him to serve up to a year in prison. In a prepared statement after Friday's hearing, his attorney, Greg Cerritelli, said his client had "dedicated his entire professional career to protecting and serving the people of Trumbull. He has an unblemished record and that speaks volumes."

"The real crime was never Sgt. Perkowski's alleged actions, but rather the political forces behind the scenes who conspired to destroy an innocent man's career," Cerritelli said. "As citizens of this state, we should all be outraged."

Perkowski was initially placed on paid administrative leave following his arrest. Cerritelli said Friday afternoon his client, having been disciplined already in connection with the case, should be back in uniform by next week.

According to the warrant, the woman said Scollin began to call and text her about 1 a.m. Sept. 6, 2020, drunkenly demanding to have sex, then showed up at her house, where he was "very intoxicated" and "aggressive."

The woman said Scollin had her drive to the Echo Hose firehouse, where she said Scollin assaulted her in her car outside the building, the warrant stated.

"The victim stated she said multiple times to stop, but he refused and he forced her to continue," the warrant stated.

Eventually, the woman told police, she and Scollin went to Perkowski's Shelton home, where she said both men physically and sexually assaulted her.

The woman told police she wasn't sure whether she wanted to press charges, then told police the next week she didn't want to pursue her complaint.

According to the warrant, a prosecutor at the courthouse told police that "we would only pursue the matter if the victim wanted to proceed."

Then, months later, the warrant stated the woman called Shelton Police Detective Richard Bango "extremely upset and crying" because Scollin had told her there would be a newspaper article about the case.

"The victim stated she wanted to come in and say she made the whole thing up to make this go away," the warrant stated. "(Bango) advised the victim she could come to the police department, but if she gave a statement that was later found to be untruthful, there could be legal consequences."

Mayor Mark Lauretti and other Shelton officials said they were not notified of the incident until March 2021, when the Connecticut Post obtained a copy of the police report through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The warrant stated that Bango then "met with supervisors at the Shelton Police Department and it was determined that the allegations fall within family violence laws.

In court Friday, Stein said that the victim had gone back and forth about wanting to see the case go forward before prosecutors independently decided to seek arrests in spring 2022.

"A decision was made that based upon the allegations and based upon the statement given by the victim on the body camera at the time of the original interview in September 2020 that there was a sufficient basis to make an arrest for the allegations that the victim complained of from that hospital bed," he said.