Second arrest planned for two Sharon crimes

SHARON, Conn. — Several weeks after a first arrest was made regarding break-ins at two Sharon businesses, the second person involved in the incidents remains at liberty. 

Michelle Dinsmore, 33, was taken into custody by the state police on Sept. 30 and charged with criminal trespass for an incident that occurred on the property of Upcountry Services on Sept. 13 and for an incident that occurred at the Bargain Barn a few days earlier, on Sept. 9.

The state police arrest warrants for Dinsmore includes her account of what happened on both days. A friend named Will Gallagher figures prominently in her narrative. Gallagher has not yet been arrested but is being sought by police.

Trespass at Upcountry

According to the warrant, a state trooper named Tartaglino met with Upcountry Services owner Don Hosier on Sept. 13 at around 3 p.m. after he called the police to report that a former employee was trespassing at the Upcountry office on Sharon Valley Road.

Hosier said that a friend had called his home to say that Dinsmore had been seen walking behind a building on the Upcountry premises. The warrant says several times that Dinsmore “had previously been trespassed from the Upcountry property.” Hosier told the state police that he wanted to press criminal charges against Dinsmore.  Gallagher is a former employee of Upcountry, and Dinsmore says in her account of the incident that it was he who had received a letter from Hosier saying that he and anyone associated with him are forbidden to step on Upcountry property. 

Located on Upper Main

Later that same day, at about 7:30 p.m., the trooper was sent to a residence in Salisbury to investigate a complaint by Caleen Speed, who lives with Gallagher’s older brother, John, and said money had been stolen from their residence. 

John Gallagher was present for the conversation with the trooper and said he thought that Dinsmore could be found at her friend’s home on Upper Main Street in Sharon.

Tartaglino went to the address that was given to him and found a woman who said she was Michelle Dinsmore but was unable to provide positive identification.

The trooper asked the woman if she had been at Upcountry that day. She said she had not, and indicated that she knows she is not allowed on the property. 

She gave a detailed accounting of all her movements on that day and on the previous day, Sept. 12, and said she could not have taken the money from Speed and Gallagher. She said that she had spent time with Will Gallagher on both days and said he had stolen from his brother before.

The warrant says that there is probable cause to believe that Dinsmore had trespassed on the Upcountry property, and she was arrested Sept. 30 for criminal trespass in the first degree. Bond was set at $2,500.

Break-in at Bargain Barn 

The other warrant for Dinsmore includes her account of events on Sept. 9. She again makes extensive mention of Will Gallagher.

On that date, Bargain Barn thrift shop owner Marshall Miles had called the police to report a burglary. Trooper Lucas Tufano went to the Sharon business, walked around the store’s exterior but did not see anything out of the ordinary, according to the police warrant. 

About a week later, on Sept. 16, Tufano returned to the Bargain Barn to meet with Miles, who explained to the trooper that he had a video of a break-in at the shop on Sept. 9.

Miles is a co-owner of Tri-State Communications, which owns the Bargain Barn as well as NPR radio station WHDD-Robin Hood Radio.

Miles said that his surveillance system sent him video at about 8:45 p.m. on that date showing a white female entering the Bargain Barn through the back entrance. 

“The female then unlocked the back door from the inside, allowing what appeared to be a white male inside,” according to Miles’s account in the police warrant.

The interior of the store was “pitch black,” according to Miles, who said that the woman in the video seemed to know how to operate the locks on the doors. He noted that the store had been broken into twice in the last month or two; that was why he had installed a new security system.

He said he couldn’t say for sure whether anything had been taken from the Bargain Barn, which has many small items for sale in several rooms. But he said, “It appeared that the male had a gray plastic-style handbag in his hands as he exited the back door.”

That day, Sept. 16, Tufano went to the Main Street residence where Dinsmore was staying with her friend. She gave him a statement regarding the Bargain Barn incident.

She said that on Sept. 9, Will Gallagher had asked her to do him a favor. She agreed, and they walked toward the center of town.  Dinsmore claims that Gallagher said to her, “I need to put you through the window of the Bargain Barn to open the back door.”

She said that at about 8:45 p.m. they arrived at the store and he pushed her up through a window near the front entrance. She then walked through the store and opened the back door.

Once inside, Dinsmore claimed, she told Gallagher she didn’t want to stay at the store and was afraid of getting in trouble. She said he got mad but looked around the store and took a radio in a gray bag and a “kids electronic tablet.”  The two left the store.

Dinsmore told the trooper that she still had the electronic tablet. Tufano took it as evidence and then told Dinsmore that she was in possession of stolen property.

“Dinsmore then became very cooperative,” Tufano said in the warrant. She told him that she “wanted to tell him about another incident involving Gallagher.”

She then gave him a statement in which she accused Gallagher of breaking into the Bargain Barn on Aug. 1 and taking $800.

Tufano said in the warrant that he was able to identify Dinsmore from Miles’ security camera video from Sept. 9.

He arrested Dinsmore on charges of conspiracy to commit burglary in the third degree, burglary in the third degree, conspiracy to commit larceny in the sixth degree and larceny in the sixth degree.

Bond was set at $2,500 for this incident. She is next scheduled to appear at Bantam Court on Nov. 22.

According to a state police source, Gallagher has not been arrested yet. It is believed he is now in Massachusetts.