CT Rep. Raghib Allie-Brennan charged with shoplifting

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State Rep. Raghib Allie-Brennan, D-Bethel, said Tuesday on social media that his arrest on a shoplifting charge Monday evening was due to his failure to scan two items as he used the self-checkout at a Target store in Bethel.

“I was in a rush to bring items to my grandmother in the hospital, the store didn’t have bags, and I was juggling multiple purchases,” Allie-Brennan said in a post on Facebook.

He was issued a misdemeanor summons for 6th-degree larceny.

A Bethel police summary of his arrest stated Allie-Brennan was detained by Target loss prevention personnel who told police they recognized him from “previous unreported larcenies.”

He was arrested after police reviewed security video showing him attempting to leave the store with $26.69 in unpaid merchandise, police said. The summary provided no further details.

Allie-Brennan, 33, a four-term lawmaker first elected in 2018, did not respond to a request for comment beyond his statement on social media, which did not directly address the accusation of previous thefts.

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“While I do not have a record, I take full responsibility for the error and am working through the legal processes to resolve the matter quickly and respectfully,” he said on Facebook.

House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said in a statement he has spoken to Allie-Brennan, who represents portions of Bethel and Danbury.

“He recognizes the high standard to which I hold our members and is taking responsibility for inadvertently leaving the Target self-checkout without scanning several items,” Ritter said.

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Mark is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.