CT Driver Damages Four Police Cars During Pursuit: PD

WHITE PLAINS, NY — A police pursuit, involving stolen merchandise, led to two felony charges for a Connecticut man and damage to four law enforcement vehicles.

The New York State Police said, around 4 p.m. Thursday, troopers were assisting the Mahwah (New Jersey) Police Department and the South Nyack Police Department with a pursuit that entered New York on Interstate 287 and continued south on Interstate 87.

Troopers from the Tarrytown barracks joined the chase in the area of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

Police said the car intentionally damaged two state police cars, a South Nyack patrol car and a Mahwah patrol car before the driver was stopped on I-287 at mile marker 5.2.

The driver, Henry L. Cofrancesco Jr., 51, of Hamden, Connecticut, was assessed at the scene by emergency medical personnel and declined treatment.

He was arrested and taken to the Hawthorne barrack.

His passenger, Jennifer L. DeJesus, 45, of New Haven, Connecticut, was taken to White Plains Hospital for injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

During the investigation, troopers said they found that Cofrancesco was in possession of merchandise worth more than $3,000 from a Petco in Reardon, New Jersey, and a Petsmart in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

He was charged with third-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree criminal mischief, felonies, and second-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree unlawful fleeing a police officer, misdemeanors.

Cofrancesco was arraigned in the City of White Plains Court and released on his own recognizance for the state police charges.

However, he was held as a fugitive from justice for felony warrants from the Mahwah Police Department and taken to the Westchester County Jail pending extradition.

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