Norwalk Man with Lengthy Record Held after Trans-Westport I-95 Pursuit, Crash

A Taylor Avenue resident who on a high-speed pursuit on Interstate 95 Thursday had his bond held at $50,000 Friday during his arraignment in state Superior Court in Norwalk.

Because of the vehicle he was driving — a white Jeep Cherokee — James H. Perdue, 39, was a suspect in a burglary at the store on Belden Avenue early Thursday morning. A burglary alarm alerted police to the break-in at 12:13 a.m.

At 1:25 a.m., police received reports of a man selling Radio Shack products out of his car at the at 94 West Ave.

The man left before police arrived, but in a report he prepared about the incident, Norwalk Officer Steven Luciano said a patron at the service station called him at 4:50 a.m. to say the man who offered to sell him a radio earlier was back in the same white Jeep Cherokee he’d been in earlier.

According to witnesses, a vehicle matching that description was involved in the Radio Shack burglary earlier in the morning.

Luciano said that as he was heading to the service station, he observed the vehicle described traveling at a high rate of speed south on West Avenue. He said the operator of the Jeep, a white male, turned onto various streets in South Norwalk as he attempted to make a traffic stop, before turning from West Avenue onto the ramp for Interstate 95 northbound.

After running the plate, Luciano said, a dispatcher advised him the 1999 Cherokee had been stolen in Norwalk March 7

Reports from several Norwalk officers describe pursuing the Cherokee on I-95, with the chase joined by a state trooper at exit 18.

According to a report from Officer James Mosher, the Cherokee exited I-95 at exit 21 in Fairfield, crossed Mill Plain Road, and while attempting to reenter I-95, left the roadway, went over a guardrail, tumbled and rolled through some small trees and came to rest on its tires on a grassy embankment between the on-ramp and Sunfield Lane.

“I exited my patrol car and observed the head and shoulder of a white male, later identified as James H. Perdue, protruding out of the windshield on the passenger side,” Mosher reported.

When he approached Perdue, Mosher said, he was mumbling and twitching, and his body was angled up and across the dashboard, with his head and shoulders through the windshield.

Perdue was transported by ambulance to Norwalk Hospital, where he was treated before being taken into custody by Norwalk Police and held overnight in lieu of $50,000 bond. He was transported to court for arraignment Friday morning.

Perdue was charged with violation of probation, first-degree larceny, interfering with an officer, making an improper turn, reckless driving, engaging an officer in pursuit, and operating a motor vehicle without a license.

Perdue was on parole for burglary and first-degree escape. His parole was revoked and he was remanded to custody.

Luciano said in his report a check of Perdue’s criminal record indicated he had been arrested 40 times on charges including burglary, weapons violations and assault. A search of Connecticut judicial records showed he has been convicted of an array of crimes 12 times.

During his arraignment, a report from a representative from the state Bail Commissioner’s office made known Perdue is employed full time and supports two children.

Three burglaries of Radio Shack stores in Norwalk have occurred in recent weeks. In each case, the front glass doors were broken, apparently by ramming a vehicle into them.

Beside the break-in at the Belden Avenue store Thursday, a burglary occurred at the same store on Feb. 16, and a Radio Shack on Connecticut Ave. was burglarized in late February.