Sohn's Wife Plans to Sue Town After Early Morning Slip and Fall at Train Station

Michael Sohn's wife has filed a notice of intent to sue the town after she claims to have slipped on ice at the Fairfield Railroad Station last January and hurt her ankle.

Aimee Renaud, of Henderson Road, says in the notice that the ice was on a road in front of the westbound side of the station and that she slipped on it about 1:30 a.m. (in a letter to Metro-North Railroad, Renaud put the time at 2:30 a.m.) She says in the Metro-North letter, which is part of a file in the Town Clerk's Office, that her ankle "instantly swelled to the size of a baseball and turned black and blue from my toes all the way up to above my ankle."

Renaud says in the letter to Metro-North that she had "an avulsion at the talus bone," which she said meant that a tendon snapped when she fell and pulled a piece of bone off her ankle.

Renaud says in the letter that there was "no announcement of the icy conditions on the platform or parking lot," that she was by herself, and there was no security or police patrol at the station "even though we we had just had a bad snow storm and the town was aware of the slippery conditions..."

Renaud, who is represented by Fairfield attorney Betty Ann Rogers, says in the letter that she was "extremely fearful" for her safety and twice tried to get onto her feet "but was unable to get up on my ankle, falling again and again as I tried to get up."

"Finally I was able to pull myself up onto my good foot and using that foot made my way to my car," she says in the letter. "I did not feel comfortable calling the police and waiting in a parking lot with no security when I was unable to walk, which is why I did not make a police report at that time."

Town Attorney Richard Saxl said slip and falls at the train station usually are accompanied by a police report or ambulance report but that wasn't the case with Renaud's notice. "I did inquire with Public Works, Police and Fire to see if they had any reports and none had. The accident occurred allegedly on town property at 1:30 in the morning," he said. "As far as I know, there were no witnesses and no official reports. Usually there would be some corroborating evidence."

Saxl said Renaud's filing was only a notice of intent to sue and that the town would look at it again more seriously if she filed a lawsuit.

The notice says Renaud took the 12:17 a.m. train from Grand Central Terminal and arrived on the New Haven-bound side of the station about 1:33 a.m. She then crossed over the tracks via a pedestrian bridge to the New York-bound side where her car was parked. The ice was in a large pothole, according to the notice.

Sohn, who had been the campaign manager of former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, is serving time in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling money from Shays' campaign.