MILFORD – A former Bridgeport school board member accused of attempting to kidnap his wife’s 21-year-old son at gunpoint while posing as a police officer, told a judge he needed a new attorney due to “creative Differences” with a lawyer who had represented him.
Chris Taylor, who served on the Board of Education for six years before deciding not to stand again in 2021, appeared briefly before Milford Superior Court Judge Peter Brown in connection with the attempted kidnapping case, which stems from an incident that took place on March 23 November 2019 returns Seymour.
A prosecutor had offered Taylor a suspended sentence and a suspended sentence in September to clear the charges.
In court Wednesday, Taylor’s attorney Arthur Ledford asked the judge to let him withdraw from the case, saying their relationship had broken down.
“It just doesn’t work, Your Honor,” Ledford said. “There’s a lot of hostility, a lot of distrust.”
Ledford was appointed special public defender in the case after another attorney who had represented Taylor moved out of state.
Taylor’s wife, Stacy, has also been charged in the case and is also being represented by a public defender.
Brown asked Taylor, who posted $100,000 bail in the case, if he planned to seek another dedicated public defender.
“I would like to take this opportunity, Your Honor,” Taylor said, citing his “creative differences” with Ledford.
The prosecutor in the case said it appeared Taylor could only try to delay the case.
“My concern at this point is that he goes and applies for another SPD, gets assigned another SPD, doesn’t like the offer or whatever that person represents him and now we’re down to another request for withdrawal,” said assistant prosecutor Marc said Durso. “If he wants to hire another lawyer, that’s certainly his right, but all I see is a revolving door. It’s almost as if the defendant is trying to play a game.”
Taylor said he “respectfully disagreed” before the judge stopped further discussion.
Brown said he had no choice but to grant Ledford’s request to withdraw from the case and told Taylor he could request another special public defender.
The judge asked Taylor if he wanted to keep the offer open until his next court date, to which Taylor replied that he didn’t understand the offer, to which Durso reiterated the terms: a three-year suspended sentence and three years’ probation if Taylor confessed to the criminal identity of a police officer, guilty of first-degree threats and third-degree assault – two felonies and one misdemeanor, respectively.
“What about releasing the charges against my wife?” Taylor asked
“This affects you and your own case,” the judge said. “Your wife has her own case, so let’s stay tuned.”
Hen then continued the case for a month, telling Taylor to be ready to move forward one way or another.
“Thirty days and we’ll see what happens in terms of representation,” the judge said. “But if nothing happens, this will be broadcast… to start picking trial dates.”
Taylor also faces third-degree assault and second-degree assault charges in connection with an alleged Fairfield street riot in which he is accused of punching a 17-year-old boy in the face in August.
In the Seymour case, he has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping, attempted second-degree kidnapping with a firearm, impersonating a police officer, third-degree assault and causing harm to a child.
On November 23, 2019, Seymour Police said officers were dispatched to a Pearl Street apartment building on a complaint of an assault. By the time officers arrived, Taylor and his wife had fled, police said.
The landlord later told officers he received a call from a man posing as a police officer with warrants out for the victim, police said. The landlord said the man on the phone told him he and a policewoman would come to the apartment building to arrest the victim.
Police said Taylor and his wife soon arrived in front of the apartment building and Chris Taylor told the landlord that other officers had blocked the road. Police said the landlord then let Stacy Taylor into the apartment, where she grabbed the victim and put his arm behind his back and escorted him out of the building, where Chris Taylor was waiting in a car.
“I heard screaming and arguing as the three words exchanged,” police said the landlord told them. “I got behind my car because I was afraid someone might start shooting.”
When the victim tried to get away, the landlord told police he heard Chris Taylor yell, “Stop it or I’ll pull out my gun.”
Police said the victim told them Chris Taylor tried to force him into their car.
