New Haven officer accused of chasing trick or treaters, yelling racial slur while off-duty

WALLINGFORD, CT (WFSB) - A New Haven officer is facing a criminal charge after records state she yelled at and chased trick or treaters on Halloween night.

This incident happened while she was off duty on Bernadette Lane in Wallingford, and it was all caught on camera.

Three teens told police they were taking a break from getting candy when all of the sudden officer Lindsey Nesto started chasing them across the neighborhood.

You can see three TEENS being chased by Nesto.

Police said this is Nesto screaming expletives and threatening two 14-year-olds and one 13-year-old. At one point Nesto is heard yelling a racial slur.

The teens told police this all started when:

Police say that driver was Nesto, an off duty New Haven officer who was visiting her sister.

Nesto ends up getting out of the car for the chase and even attempted to grab the kids’ collar while allegedly threatening to break their neck.

“It’s kind of scary you want to make sure your kids are safe out there and then you see things like that it’s disheartening,” said Richard Canto.

A family member told police Nesto maybe had too much to drink. A sister also tried to stop her and was caught on camera urging Nesto to get in the car.

“You would think with their level of training they would be able to hold their emotion especially with minors and younger children,” said Richard.

Nesto’s boss, Chief Karl Jacobson of New Haven, said she’s on desk duty amid an internal investigation, which won’t be her first time.

“I don’t want to go in depth about it because I don’t think that’s appropriate at this time. But I do believe she had a prior internal affairs investigation,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson said he was alerted of the incident by the Wallingford police about a month after it happened.

“Officers are allowed to be off duty and do things but we don’t want officers behaving in that manner if allegations are correct,” said Jacobson.

Nesto has a court hearing for her breach of peace charge on February 17.

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