Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • B6

B6 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2015 THE HARTFORD COURANT I ONNECTICUT Body Cameras Continued from Page Bl by the administration of President Barack Obama The department already has purchased about 40 of the cameras, but police officials said software troubles and privacy issues have slowed the efforts. The city also would have to negotiate the matter with the police union. "In response to the city council's resolution, in regards to body cameras for the police department, the Hartford Police Union is convening its own task force to fully study and understand the pros and cons, as well as the short- and long-term costs of body cameras," the union said in a statement. The proposal doesn't specify how many of the more than 400 police officers would be required to wear the cameras while on the job. During a news conference before the council meeting, at which they held up shirts with big letters saying "Don't Shoot," Jennings, Councilman Joel Cruz Jr.

and Councilman Larry Deutsch said the body cameras are a practical step to add protection and evidence should any issues arise with an officer. Some other municipalities in Connecticut have explored or implemented use of body cameras for police officers. Trademark Continued from Page Bl family run its social media sites, said every time an abusive or unauthorized Twitter account appears, she has to fill out a form and send it to the company. Twitter then does an investigation and determines whether the account violates the company's policies and should be removed. She said the family applied for the trademark protection on Monday in the hopes of expediting that process.

"Now we can say, 'Look they can't use this name, it has to come down right she said. Nu Wexler, a Twitter spokesman, declined to comment in an email, but pointed to the company's impersonation policy, which says accounts can be permanently suspended if they are deemed to be "portraying another person in a confusing or deceptive manner." The Connecticut Attorney General's office said it has not received any formal complaints from Sandy Hook families about abuse on Twitter. "We did follow up on complaints that families had made regarding Facebook pages, and did find Facebook to be responsive to our concerns," said spokeswoman Jaclyn Falkowsld. "We would encourage families to contact our office about problems they're experiencing on Twitter so that we might be able to offer our ARNOLD GOLD I ASSOCIATED PRESS MATTHEW PUGH, right, arrives at Superior Court in Milford on Tuesday for the opening day of his trial for the killing of his ex-girlfriend, Alexandra Ducsay. Trial Continued from Page Bl "I didn't want to believe it" Ducsay was the state's first witness in the case against Pugh, 42, who faces a maximum of 80 years in prison if convicted of charges of murder and first-degree burglary.

Alexandra Ducsay was found beaten to death in her home. An autopsy showed she died of multiple blunt force trauma injuries to her head. She also had "multiple sharp and blunt force injuries to her upper extremities." Milford firefighter Jason Dombrowsld and Milford police Lt. William Cable both testified about the horrors they saw at the crime scene blood was splattered on walls and floors, Ducsay's head was bashed in, and she was missing an eyeball. "It was a very gruesome scene," Dombrowsld said as some jurors looked away from the screen in the courtroom that prosecutors used to show crime scene photos.

Pugh, wearing a gray suit, rocked back and forth in a chair while seated next to his attorney at the defense table. Court records said police had investigated two other possible suspects in Ducsay's slaying, but as they continued to build their case, they focused on Pugh and arrested him in 2012. Ducsay's face was on the two of clubs in a deck of playing cards the state distributed to prison inmates in 2011 featuring cold- case victims. Authorities created the cards in an effort to find information in the unsolved cases. Prosecutors on Wednesday punctuated Linda Ducsay's testimony about her horrific discovery with the playing of a tape of the emergency-911 call Ducsay made to police.

On it, Ducsay can be heard screaming hysterically as the operator calmly tries to ask her what is wrong. "Oh my God!" Ducsay screamed repeatedly. "Hello? Hello? What's going on ma'am?" the operator asked. "My daughter's dead!" Ducsay testified that her daughter first met Pugh when she was a teen. She continued the relationship after he went to prison.

She would visit Pugh in prison, bring him things and take his daily collect phone calls. Ducsay said because Pugh was about eight years older and was "very controlling and overpowering," she said she tried to talk to her daughter about moving on from the relationship. Eventually Ducsay said her daughter did break it off but said she wanted to continue to help him. "She would say, feel sorry for Ducsay testified. Ducsay recalled a conversation she had with Pugh when he called from prison one day looking for her daughter.

Alexandra, described by her mother as an "overachiever," graduated Magna Cum Laude from college, was an accomplished gymnast, did choreography for a weekend dance troupe, was taking singing lessons and hoped to make it big in the entertainment business. "She achieved more in 25 years than I did in a lifetime," her mother told jurors. Alexandra Ducsay went to regular auditions in New York and had landed a small role on a TV show before her death. While Pugh was in prison, Alexandra began to mature and get over her infatuation with Pugh, her mother said. "I told him to leave her alone, that she had a life now," Ducsay said.

Pugh then told her, "You should really be careful what you say and do." When she asked Pugh if he was threatening her, he told her, "Take it any way you want," Ducsay testified. Alexandra Ducsay's brother, Eric Terra-nova, testified that his sister told him she was afraid of Pugh and worried about what he would do once he was released from prison. Under cross examination, Pugh's attorney, Paul Carty, asked Terranova why he didn't tell police in a statement Terranova said he wrote shortly after his sister was killed that she feared Pugh. "Didn't you think that was important information for them to have?" Carty asked Terranova. "There are lots of facts I can think of that aren't in there," Terranova replied.

He said he told police verbally that his sister feared Pugh. "Why it's not in the written statement I couldn't tell you," Terranova said. Testimony is scheduled to resume Wednesday. Promotion Continued from Page B3 driving without insurance. His attorney could not be reached late Tuesday to update the status of those charges.

Witkos said legislators will likely sharpen the language of the bill to reflect their concern with serious, not minor crimes. A statement from Michael Ea-gen, director of UConn's faculty and staff labor relations office, said that pre-employment criminal checks are "an important element" of UConn's effort to create a secure environment, but that faculty are not required to undergo additional criminal background checks as a condition for promotion. He said such a requirement could "occasionally identify an employee who had been convicted of a crime that had not been reported to, or detected by, appropriate university officials." He added that conducting such checks would pose additional costs and administrative burdens. Guerrera flatly rejected Fasano's argument that tolls will not work in Connecticut. He said the state needs to begin a detailed conversation with federal transportation officials to obtain a waiver to allow for the placement of tolls on existing roads.

"They want us to start subsidizing our own infrastructure because they can't afford it," Guerrera said of the federal government. "We're getting less and less money from the feds, so the day has come." He noted that the majority of the motorists using state highways are from other states. "If you can raise almost $30 billion over a 25 year period," Guerrera said, "that's some serious money that we've never seen before." The Republican plan that calls for spending $37.4 billion over the next three decades sounds like a big number, Guerrera said. But it's not nearly enough to fix the state's aging roads, bridges and railways, he said. "Infrastructure projects cost multi-, multimillions of dollars," Guerrera said.

Construction of a fairly straightforward "fly-over" exit ramp connecting 1-84 with 1-91 in Hartford would cost $200 million to build, he said. "This is a plan without a plan," said Adam Joseph, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats. "At best, the Republicans' proposal supports a status quo that falls well short of meeting Connecticut's transportation needs. Governor Malloy is providing real leadership on this issue, and we are confident that his comprehensive plan will bring our infrastructure into the 21st century." Malloy spokesman Devon Puglia said: "We are glad the Republicans are following the governor's lead in participating in a bipartisan dialogue about the future of our transportation system. The Republican documents, however, don't include projects they would support or prioritize, while proposing funding levels that will likely only fund the status quo.

The governor believes we need a transformative transportation plan one that includes projects, prioritized by experts and he looks forward to submitting those ideas to the General Assembly when he presents his budget next week." But Republicans said they purposely didn't release a list of projects because they said they would not pick "winners and losers" in deciding which projects get funded. "I don't know what the governor's going to say next week when he releases his plan," Klarides said. "But I think he's hinted a little bit that it's going to be on a grandiose scale widening 95 from border to border. He's coming up with these ideas, and he's sayingyou guys figure out how to fund it. So we did just that." "We're not telling the administration, the DOT or anybody else which projects should be funded," Klarides said.

"We are not engineers. We have to rely on the experts to tell us what our priorities should be." For example, fixing the state's bridges one out of 10 is listed in high disrepair, she said should take precedence over new rail cars or wider roads. "We only have a limited amount of money," she said. "We believe safety should come first." It does not call for tolls, which Sen. Len Transportation Continued from Page Bl variety of projects that include widening Interstate 95 from Greenwich to Ston-ington.

The Republican proposal calls for borrowing money through general obligation bonds that would be set aside exclusively for transportation. But House Republican leader Themis Klarides said that a constitutional amendment was not necessary because the legislature has not abided by the constitutional spending cap that was passed by voters as part of the creation of the state income tax in the early 1990s. The legislature has instead been operating under a state law on spending because lawmakers never voted to successfully implement the constitutional cap. Klarides questions Malloy's support for a constitutional amendment regarding transportation spending. "We get elected because people trust us to do the right thing for them whether it's our judgment or what they want or anything in between," Klarides told The Courant.

"By saying, can't trust myself to use the money where it's supposed to be used' notwithstanding the fact that we have a law that goes into effect in July that actually tells us we can use it that tells me he can't trust himself." Regarding the constitutional spending cap, Klarides said, "We blow through it all the time by loopholes and moving money around, as we all know. We don't have a good track record as far as constitutional amendments go." Fasano, the Republican leader in the state Senate, said are not feasible in Connecticut. Nor does it rely on an increase in the state's complicated, two-pronged gasoline tax. "Rather than asking everyone else to contribute to the problems that we created, why don't we look inwardly and do some adjusting to our budget and some belt-tightening and make it happen?" Fasano said. Fasano did not rule out a "lock box," saying the concept could be discussed as the legislative session moves forward.

After hearing that Malloy's plan would be 30 years, the Republicans decided that theirs should be 30 years too, he said. "It's to dovetail with him, not to be against him," Fasano said of Malloy. Before unveiling their plans publicly, Republicans met with the state transportation commissioner and Malloy's chief legislative aide to give them a briefing. State Rep. Tony Guerrera, a Rocky Hill Democrat who co-chairs the legislature's transportation committee, said he welcomed the Republican input, describing the plan as "a good gesture." But Guerrera said he has concerns with the Republicans' no-tolls and no-new-taxes proposal.

The numbers, he said, don't add up, especially considering that revenue generated by the gasoline tax, a major source of transportation funding, is partially declining. "The gas tax isn't producing enough revenue," Guerrera said. "How are you going to fund this whole initiative? We've got to be realistic. No one likes the concept of higher taxes or even electronic tolling.".