Driver in crash that killed trooper pleads guilty in Mass. traffic case

Springfield, Mass. (WTNH) - The Enfield man accused of causing an accident that killed a Connecticut State Trooper faced a judge in a Massachusetts court Tuesday morning.

The charge against 32-year-old Michael Pajak was not related to that deadly crash.

Pajak walked out of court around 12:15 p.m. after paying his fine. He still showed signs of the crash with cuts on his face and one leg in a brace, but he wasn’t talking about the deadly accident.

News 8’s Erin Cox: “Do you expect to be charged in Connecticut? Do you remember anything?”
Michael Pajak: ”I have nothing to say right now.”

Police say he was driving his pickup truck at a high rate of speed on I-91 in Enfield, cut across several lanes and then slammed into a State Police cruiser.

The trooper died from his injuries.

News 8 tried to get answers about the crash, but his lawyer wouldn't allow it.

Erin Cox: “Do you want to set the record straight right here right now?”
Unidentified lawyer: “No, he doesn't.”

57-year-old Trooper First Class Kenneth Ray Hall was inside the cruiser having pulled over another vehicle for a routine traffic stop.

Pajak was hospitalized at a Springfield, Massachusetts hospital and then held in custody on a ten-year old Massachusetts motor vehicle violation, which brought him before a judge where he pleaded guilty to driving with a suspended license back in 2001.

Pajak is no stranger to traffic troubles. News 8 has learned his license had been suspended some ten times to prior to the crash.

The judge could have sent him to jail for ten days, but instead allowed him to pay a $675 fine. Since Connecticut has no warrant and no charges on the table connecting him to the tragic crash in Enfield, Pajak paid his fine and walked.

Pajak is truly a free man. It appears there are no restrictions on what he can do and where he can go.

Conn. State Police say it could take four to five weeks before there is an arrest connected to Trooper Hall's death, possibly due to forensic tests and questions about what was going on between Pajak and his female passenger, Jenny Benvenuto, moments before the crash.

A Vietnam veteran, TFC Kenneth Ray Hall will be buried with full military honors on Friday.

Calling hours will be held Thursday, Sept. 9 from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Carmon Windsor Funeral Home, 807 Bloomfield Aveune in Windsor.

Funeral services will be held 11 a.m., Friday, Sept. 10 at the Connecticut State Armory on 360 Broad Street in Hartford.

His burial will be private.

He leaves behind a wife and five sons.

A memorial Facebook page has been established for TFC Hall