Odd Identity Switch Backfires With Arrests

A Hartford burglary investigation shifted from a whodunit to a why-do-it last week at West Hartford Police Headquarters.

Why impersonate a possible felon?

Why do it in the lobby of a police station?

Why allegedly drive two-and-a-half hours from New York and pretend to be a probable burglary suspect who, meanwhile, was allegedly hiding in a car in the parking lot with a window down and the radio on?

“I explained how ridiculous of a story it was that he had driven from New York to find out if [he] was wanted, but he stuck with his initial story,” West Hartford Det. Robert Magao said in an arrest report.

According to police, two New York men were arrested June 15 after one of the men mysteriously identified himself as the other – a suspect in a felony burglary case in Hartford.

Police said Carlo Fils Kernizan, 21, of 251 Elmont Road in Elmont, N.Y., was charged June 15 with hindering prosecution and interfering with an officer after pretending to be Patrick A. Newark.

Newark, 22, of 51115 240th St. in Elmont, was arrested in the police parking lot. He was eventually turned over to Hartford police on charges of first-degree burglary and fourth-degree larceny, police said.

The odd incident began when Kernizan introduced himself at the front desk as Newark. He apparently was on a fact-finding assignment to see if an arrest warrant existed for Newark in West Hartford or Hartford, police said.

The answer from Hartford police was yes.

A warrant for Newark's arrest was recently issued in connection with a burglary March 4 in the city.

Magao and Officer Daniel Moffo decided to question “Newark” because he was charged in April with marijuana possession on South Highland Street, an area with several recent residential burglaries, police said.

“When I opened the door to the lobby and asked for Patrick Newark, [Kernizan] stood up from the lobby bench and walked towards me identifying himself as Patrick Newark,” Magao said. “He looked nothing like the [mugshot] of Patrick Newark that I had just looked at.”

At that juncture, Magao said, Kernizan said “he was not Patrick Newark but that he only said he was in order to find out if Patrick Newark had an arrest warrant.”

Kernizan said he drove from Elmont to West Hartford on behalf of Newark, whom he identified next as his brother, police said. Kernizan also told police that Newark was somewhere in New York.

Though the men are not brothers, they are good friends, the investigation later determined.

After Kernizan was taken to a holding cell, Magao and Moffo went to the police parking lot to inspect a 2008 Nissan Versa with New York plates. A window was down, the radio was on, and Newark was lying down in a fully reclined driver’s seat, “attempting to hide,” Magao said.

Newark and Kernizan denied any involvement in any burglaries in West Hartford, police said.

Kernizan acknowledged he indeed drove with Newark from New York earlier that morning, police said.

Newark’s hearing Wednesday in Hartford Superior Court was continued to July 21, according to court records. Kernizan was scheduled to appear in Hartford Community Court June 27.

Both men were free on written promises to appear.