By Daniel Tepfer
Connecticut Post
BRIDGEPORT — A former state corrections officer awaiting trial in the horrific hit-and-run that killed a local woman and injured her young son was taken into custody Thursday morning after a judge raised her bond.
Judicial marshals handcuffed Patricia Daniels, 42, who worked 17 years for the state Correction Department, and led her out of a Main Street courtroom after state Superior Court Judge Robert Devlinincreased her bond to $200,000 from $150,000 as a result of Daniels’ recent arrest for allegedly beating a young girl with a belt.
“It is disturbing that both of these cases have very troubling aspect to them -- unexpected violence,” the judge said in raising the bond.
State’s Attorney John Smriga stopped just short of urging the judge to revoke Daniels’ bond, but said it should be substantially increased.
“The new arrest is very troubling because it involves violence against young children,” the prosecutor told the judge.
Prior to her bond being increased, Daniels pleaded not guilty in the new case to two counts of risk of injury to a child and two counts of third-degree assault. She asked for a jury trial.
Devlin also agreed to appoint a public defender to represent Daniels in the new case after her lawyer in the hit-and-run case, Brittany Paz, told the judge Daniels has no money to hire a lawyer for the case.
Paz said later she expects Daniels to post the increased bond.
Daniels, of Palisade Avenue, refers to herself on Facebook as “The Prophetess.” She is charged in the Dec. 4 crash that killed Evelyn Agyei and injured her 11-year-old son on Boston Avenue.
According to the state Department of Correction, she was fired from her job on March 20.
Agyei, the mother of three children who had been a teacher in her native Ghana, had been caring for the children of a Trumbull family. She had been driving her son to school when a white BMW sport-utility vehicle rammed her older model Subaru on Boston Avenue.
A video camera on a nearby building captured the scene as the SUV rammed Agyei’s car first once, then again, driving it into a tree.
Agyei, 51, died at the scene. Her son was severely injured. The BMW drove off without stopping.
During the brief court hearing, a large contingent of the victim’s family sat in the back of the courtroom. They declined comment.
In the new case, Daniels is charged with whipping a 12-year-old girl, who is a friend of Daniels’ niece, with a belt during a sleep-over at Daniels’ home earlier this month.
Police said Daniels struck the girl multiple times on the back with her “work belt,” and then straddled the girl’s head with her legs and continued beating her.
The victim and her mother complained to a police officer at the girl’s school the next day and the officer notified the state Department of Children and Families.
Police said a DCF social worker questioned Daniels, who admitted hitting the girl with the belt because the girl had given out Daniels’ phone number to a classmate.