By David Owens
The Hartford Courant
LITCHFIELD, Conn. — As police were closing in, the man charged with interfering with emergency radio transmissions in Litchfield County tried to get rid of the two-way radio he is accused of using by throwing it into a trash container, according to court documents released Monday.
Several people had contacted police to say they suspected Adam Perrelli, 35, of Great Barrington, Mass., was behind a series of phony radio calls on frequencies used by Litchfield County fire departments and ambulance crews.
State police had distributed the recordings to the media with the hope that someone would recognize the voice.
Police said they received several calls that mentioned Perrelli, who has a criminal record, including sexual assault and burglary. Tipsters told police that Perrelli had two-way radios.
One witness told state police about Perrelli’s attempt to get rid of the two-way radio, telling them on March 4 that she saw Perrelli throw a backpack into a trash container at a VFW post in Great Barrington on Feb. 28.
When detectives checked the trash container that same day, it was empty. They then contacted the owner of the carting company that emptied the container and he told them he still had the load from the VFW trash bin in his truck.
On March 6, detectives followed the refuse truck to a transfer station in Canaan, N.Y., where the load was dumped. They searched the refuse and eventually found a backpack containing a Baofeng two-way radio.
That same day, Perrelli in an interview with detectives admitted making several of the fake radio transmissions that interfered with fire and ambulance dispatching in Litchfield County in December and January. He claimed to be drunk when he made some of the calls, police said.
Several people told police that Perrelli had boasted about making the transmissions. They said they contacted police after learning about the allegations.
The warrant described Perrelli as someone who wanted desperately to be a firefighter, but who failed to gain certifcation in Connecticut and was rejected from joining the Great Barrington fire department.
Perrelli, who used to live in Branford, was arrested Friday on charges of reporting a false incident, reckless endangerment, computer crimes, interfering with an officer and tampering with physical evidence, state police said. He was arraigned Monday in Superior Court in Litchfield and ordered held on $125,000 bail.