Retired Trumbull cop charged with sex assault

Former Trumbull Police Officer Michael Gonzalez. Former Trumbull Police Officer Michael Gonzalez. Photo: Contributed Photo / Contributed Photo Photo: Contributed Photo / Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Retired Trumbull cop charged with sex assault 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT — Prosecutors have increased the charges against a retired Trumbull cop accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Michael Gonzalez, who was previously charged with using the Trumbull Police Department computer system to get the address and car registration information for the alleged victim, was charged Friday with third-degree sexual assault.

The charge is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

“We are changing the charges based on a further investigation of the case,” Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Tatiana Messina said as Gonzalez stood before Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton.

The judge then issued Gonzalez another order that he stay away from the alleged victim and her family.

Gonzalez, 40, who retired from the Police Department last year after being arrested on charges of assaulting a female officer he was having an affair with.

State police, who took over the investigation, said Gonzalez was not initially charged with sex assault of the teen because the girl’s mother reported the alleged incident 20 days after the statute of limitations on the charge, fourth-degree sex assault, had run out.

Messina did not comment on the specific reason for the new charge. Neither Gonzalez nor his lawyer, Daniel Esposito, commented as they left the Golden Hill Street courthouse.

On Aug. 24, 2018, the teen’s mother contacted Trumbull Police Sgt. Brian Weir, “frantically telling him that the victim had just told her that Gonzalez tried to rape her sometime in 2017,” according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Internal affairs investigators for the police department interviewed the teen. And on Oct. 31, 2018, the case was turned over to state police who again interviewed her, the affidavit states.