Stabbing Victim Sues Cops for Negligence

New Milford, CTA woman who was stabbed by her estranged husband outside of her home is suing the town of New Milford, Connecticut, for negligence, claiming that police should have prevented the attack.

The Danbury News Times reports that Catherine Fergus was in her car at her home when her husband, who she was planning to divorce, stabbed her a number of times in the back and arm, according to the negligence lawsuit. She was able to escape and run into the house, but Neil Fergus was able to enter the home and threw his 71-year-old mother-in-law to the ground before police arrived on the scene to arrest him.

Fergus claims in her lawsuit that police should have arrested her husband after he violated a protective order that had been in place. Instead she alleges that the police "[tipped] him off to his pending arrest," shortly before her stabbing.


"It is inconceivable that a trained police officer would call an insane man who recently threatened his estranged wife and alert him that he was about to be arrested," Fergus' attorney, Joe Faxon, told the news source. "Barney Fife would know that the insane man's next move would be to go attack the woman again."

Neil Fergus has been charged with a number of crimes, including attempted murder and first-degree assault.