Whistleblower Trooper Sues State for Retaliation

It's May 1st.

From your city to your ears, this is Hartford News Today, powered by AI.

A retired Connecticut State trooper, master sergeant Dominic Guggen, just filed a lawsuit

claiming state police brass pushed him into early retirement, as payback for blowing the

whistle on misconduct.

He says he reported issues like shady overtime payments, but instead of digging in, the

Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection targeted him.

Over his final six years on the force, Guggen raised red flags multiple times, including

an anonymous tip on August 12, 2024.

That one zeroed in on Sergeant Robert Hazen, accusing him of padding overtime hours from

August to September 2023, while serving as Chief of Staff, thanks to Lacks Oversight.

Officials allegedly sniffed him out as the source, grilled him to confess and flipped

the script with their own investigation.

It stemmed from a June 5, 2023 complaint by a female trooper over a supposed WhatsApp

message, but Guggen calls it a sham pretext.

The suit blasts them for skipping real forensics.

No device checks, no metadata review, nothing to verify the message.

They also stonewalled his records request on overtime waste, and even withheld his retirement

badge and papers.

Now he's chasing back pay, lost benefits, emotional distress damages, and punitive hits, with

the state named as Defendant.

This saga spotlights how whistleblowers in blue might face the heat instead of the

bad apples.