Jared Kupiec, the former chief of staff to Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra, was arrested by the Hartford Police Department and accused of driving a city vehicle more than 1,000 miles after his city job ended.
Kupiec was arrested and charged with using a Ford Explorer without owner's permission and interfering with police. Kupiec turned himself in and was released on a written promise to appear.
According to a police report, an officer responded to a report of damaged vehicles on Capitol Avenue on Monday, July 8 and found several cars with broken windows and other damage.
As police checked vehicle files to locate the owners, they noticed that a silver Ford Explorer was registered to the City of Hartford and had previously been assigned to Kupiec, who left his post with the city on June 21. The car was outside Kupiec's apartment, police said.
Police called his cell phone.
Kupiec first denied having possession of the car or knowing how the car ended up outside his apartment, police said.
He then told police he had turned the vehicle over to city hall, kept the keys because he was uncomfortable leaving them in the car and never heard back from city officials requesting the keys, police said.
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When police interviewed city officials, they said they didn't recall Kupiec saying he had the keys.
Kupiec also told investigators he was never told he could no longer use the vehicle and admitted to using it about 12 times since leaving his job with the mayor's office, according to the warrant.
City officials denied the claim and said Kupiec had been told he could no longer use city property.
Kupiec admitted to police that he used the car on July 7 to transport baseball players he coaches to and from playing, according to the arrest warrant, and wanted to apologize to the officer for misleading him during his investigation.
Police said the car had been driven 1,202 miles between June 13 and July 7, including a trip to Dunkin' Donuts.
The calculated the cost of operating the vehicle during the time frame is $508.50, according to police.
Kupiec is scheduled to appear in court on August 8.
