"Being a police officer was in my blood -- my mother was a probation officer, my brother is a police officer," Nicholas Vanghele testified Thursday before state Superior Court Judge Dale Radcliffe in Bridgeport. The former police sergeant, who now manages a housing-flipping company in Shelton and is pursuing a modeling career, attributes the behavior that led to his forced resignation to an injury he suffered while on duty and resulting addictions. About 2 a.m. that day, court records indicate, the wife of another sergeant in the Fairfield Police Department contacted her husband, who was on duty, and told him a man was on their back deck, looking in through the window. Numerous police cars were sent to the area and a figure was spotted running from the scene, court documents say; a patio chair was found placed under the home's rear bay window.

Scott Bannon, who earlier this year requested a leave of absence as Dwight School's principal through the end of the academic year, has since resigned, and Ginger Vail, principal at McKinley School, is resigning effective June 30, according to school officials. Ann Leffert, director of the school district's Human Resources Department, said Vail and Anna Cutaia-Leonard, director of elementary education, would be working with Pearson on the transition and that the district hoped to announce in June who Dwight's new principal would be. Superintendent of Schools David Title informed Dwight parents that Bannon would not be returning as principal in an April 30 letter and said in the letter that a committee of teachers, parents and administrators would interview a group of qualified candidates to replace him.

A chilly, wet start to this Memorial Day weekend will only get better the closer we get to the actual holiday, according to the National Weather Service. Most of today, howev er, will be a washout in southwestern Connecticut, with periodic showers, gray skies and breezy conditions. Tonight, there remains a 40 percent chance of showers, with temperatures falling to a chilly low of about 40 degrees.

A Fairfield woman reported to police that an unidentified motorist asked her 11-year-old son if he wanted a ride as the boy walked home from Fairfield Country Day School about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday. The boy yelled, "No!" and the motorist -- described as a white man about 35 years old with black hair, a black goatee and a gray tee-shirt -- replied, "Ok, never mind" and drove away, police said.

A Michigan truck driver was charged with simple trespass after police said he entered Fairfield Ludlowe High School's fitness center to work out without permission Wednesday evening. Tamir Hasan Al-Halees, 26, of Saginaw, Mich., had parked his truck at an Interstate 95 rest stop by Exit 22 when he noticed that the high school was a short distance away, police said.

Fairfield's annual memorial ceremony honoring military personnel lost at sea is scheduled Saturday morning at the South Benson Marina. A Veterans of Foreign Wars contingent will lead a flag ceremony at the marina entrance at 9:30 a.m., following by the memorial program at the marina gas dock at 10 a.m., the committee said.

Monday's Memorial Day parade will highlight a full weekend of holiday activities and observances that include a sea-memorial ceremony, a popular pancake breakfast and a community picnic. The parade steps off from North Pine Creek Road and Post Road at 10 a.m., and will follow its customary route east on Post Road to the main branch library, south on Old Post Road and then east on Old Post Road past the Town Hall Green. The parade's line of march includes more than 80 organizations, including bands, veterans organizations and active military units, area police and fire department contingents, public officials, civic organizations and youth groups ranging from scouts to sports leagues. The key address on the green will be given by Vanessa Marshall, Fairfield's municipal veterans service officer -- a onetime army nurse who went on to earn graduate degrees and Yale and Harvard universities. Marshall retired from the Army Nurse Corps with the rank of major after serving 22 years, parade organizers said in a news release.

The threat of showers and thunderstorms across southwestern Connecticut today is rated at 100 percent, with a daytime temperature rising to a high in the mid-60s under cloudy skies, the NWS says. Tonight. more rain is in the forecast as the temperature drops to the upper-40s., with a north wind 14 to 16 mph. There remains a slight chance of rain Sunday, under mostly cloudy skies as temperatures rise to a high in the mid-60s. On Monday, Memorial Day, the wet weather cycle finally rolls from the area and holiday skies should be sunny.

Reconstruction of the Cornell Road bridge, delayed for months by frigid winter temperatures, has been completed and the span reopened to traffic Tuesday afternoon. Included in the bonding, in addition to the new Cornell span, are sidewalk replacements around town and a new traffic light at the corner of Fairfield Woods Road and Melville Avenue.

Police Escort Radio Car Police Benefit Association Honor Guard Police Canine Officer Kevin Wells & Ruger Fairfield Warde High School Band Active duty military personnel and Capt. Roger Crossland Marine Corps League, Greater Bridgeport Detachment Disabled American Veterans,Fairfield Chapter 19 Fairfield Woods Middle School Band National Association of Naval Veterans, Port 5 Military Honor Guard National Association of Naval Veterans, Color Guard Fairfield Museum and History Center with 1916 QQI Model T Ambulance and 1915 Dodge Touring Staff Car Catholic War Veterans, Fairfield Fire Department Southport Volunteer Fire Dept. St. Patrick's Gaelic Football Club First Church Congregational float

Seated on the reviewing stand will be town officials, the parade's master of ceremonies and invited guests. The parade starts on the Post Road at South Pine Creek Road, and continues east to the Old Post Road at the Fairfield Public Library, where it will hang a right and then a left at the Fairfield YMCA for the westward procession along the Old Post Road past Town Hall Green and the reviewing stand.

While the addition of four classrooms, two dedicated science rooms and expansion of the cafeteria only accounts for $3.8 million of the projected ovall cost, it was the focus of the discussion. Because of suggestions that the Early Childhood Education Center at Fairfield Warde High School might be relocated to allow for redistricting of the town's high school population, Superintendent of Schools David Title showed the selectmen figures that made them realize that wasn't financially feasible. School officials said that with the additions to Ludlowe will aid in creating a new high school schedule, one that will allow for a designated lunch period for each student. Under the existing high school schedule, if students choose to take classes for all eight periods of the day, they are left without a free period for lunch.

Any blankets, chairs and tarps set out along the Old Post and Post roads within the town-owned strip of grass between the curb and the sidewalk along the parade route more than 24 hours in advance will be confiscated by the Department of Public Works. While setting out chairs and blankets for parade viewing a day or two before Memorial Day along the route had long been a local tradition, people several years ago began staking out their spots an entire week before the event.