A former Fairfield official has pleaded guilty to a federal charge for threatening to kill numerous police officers in town.
Raymond Neuberger, 41, of Easton appeared last Thursday in federal court in Hartford where he waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty to transmitting interstate communications containing a threat to injure, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.
Federal officials said Neuberger on April 24 reportedly sent text messages to someone expressing threats to kill the police officers with the Fairfield Police Department. Later in the day, he stopped his vehicle in the middle of Post Road where he allegedly screamed profanities and made an obscene gesture at an officer, authorities said.
Neuberger then reportedly drove to the Fairfield Police Department where he saw the same police officer, yelled more profanities and made an obscene gesture, federal officials said. Neuberger is a former Fairfield Representative Town Meeting member who unsuccessfully ran for state representative in 2016.
Following the initial incidents, Neuberger reportedly made several threatening calls to the Fairfield County Regional Dispatch Center and to the police department, according to officials. He also reportedly sent several more threatening text messages to an unidentified individual, including one that said “I’m going to kill all the Fairfield cops,” authorities said. The message went on to say “Tell Fairfield PD I’m close to snapping,” and “I’m armed,” authorities said.
Neuberger was arrested on related state charges on April 29. He is in federal custody awaiting sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled. He faces a maximum of five years behind bars.
Prior to the threats, Neuberger was arrested twice by Fairfield police and charged with maliciously wounding or killing an animal in 2022 and 2023. In one of these cases, police said he was responsible for the death of a cat that had been covered in bleach and suffered neurological trauma. The animal died of blunt force trauma, a necropsy showed.
In the other case, Neuberger was accused of abusing and torturing a different cat. He was also arrested by Fairfield police in March 2023 and accused of sending several threatening and harassing text messages to law enforcement, police said.
According to court records, Neuberger in December 2023 was sentenced to 17 months in prison and four years of probation after pleading guilty to the animal abuse charges as well as one count of second-degree threatening. He has since been charged with violating his probation, records show.