Former Glastonbury police officer charged in ninth commercial burglary

A former Glastonbury police officer has now been charged in nine burglaries across the state after being charged earlier this month in a restaurant burglary in South Windsor.

Patrick Hemingway, 37, was charged on March 8 with third-degree burglary and third-degree criminal mischief in connection with a break-in last spring at the Mill on the River restaurant on Ellington Road, according to the South Windsor Police Department.

Police accused Hemingway of breaking into the building on April 24, 2023, damaging an exterior door and a door to a safe he was unable to get into.

Following his arrest, Hemingway appeared in Manchester Superior Court, where a judge set bail in the case at $100,000. He is due back in court on April 2.

According to the state Department of Correction, Hemingway is now being held on bonds totaling just under $1.4 million. Court records show he has nine burglary cases pending and a 10th arrest in which he has been accused of misusing a law enforcement database when he was an officer with the Glastonbury Police Department.

Police departments in Wethersfield, Stratford, Shelton, Old Saybrook, East Hampton and Manchester have filed burglary charges against the former officer, records show.

According to the arrest warrant affidavits in multiple cases, Hemingway is a suspect in a burglary spree involving more than 40 businesses in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

He was first arrested last September in New Jersey and charged as a fugitive. The former cop was extradited to Connecticut on Sept. 28, 2023, and was charged by Connecticut State Police with first-degree computer crimes and making a false statement.

The arrest warrant affidavit obtained by state police said Hemingway used his access to COLLECT — a database used by police officers and others in criminal justice that provides access to state and federal law enforcement resources — to determine if any agencies had identified him as a suspect while he was still working as a Glastonbury officer.

Hemingway worked as a police officer in New Britain from 2009 until January 2019. He then joined Glastonbury police before submitting a resignation letter last July which took effect in September.

In the letter, Hemingway cited his desire to pursue a career in commercial aviation, which he wrote would better suit his skills and allow him more time to spend with his family.

According to the warrant affidavit, Wethersfield police were the first agency to suspect Hemingway in a burglary. While investigating a break-in at the Old Wethersfield Country Store, police found that cellphone tower data from the crime matched tower data from a burglary in Shelton. The “common identifier” in the cellphone data had ties to a 2019 Jeep Cherokee registered to Hemingway’s wife, the affidavit said.

State police said Hemingway was later found to have run numerous queries through COLLECT between January 2021 and August 2023, checking on vehicles registered to him and his wife as well as his name.