During his final year as city police chief, Karl Jacobson allegedly lost more than $214,000 after wagering more than $4.4 million on the sports-betting apps DraftKings and FanDuel. “I have a problem,” Jacobson reportedly told the city’s three assistant chiefs in January when confronted abo ut missing confidential-informant funds. “I fix my alcohol problem. I turned to gambling. I don’t know why it just got worse recently.” Those details are included in a redacted ten-page arrest warrant affidavit released by state police Friday afternoon about Jacobson’s arrest on two counts of first-degree larceny. Accompanied by his attorney Gregory Cerritelli, Jacobson turned himself in Friday morning to the state police barracks in Montville, and was released on a $150,000 bond. His criminal case is set to be heard in New Haven state court on Friday, March 6. The warrant includes a wealth of detail about Jacobson’s alleged theft of $85,500 from two city funds — one meant for confidential informants, the other meant for the youth-sports Police Activity League. In particular, the warrant shines a light on just how much money Jacobson was gambling, and losing, in the runup to his alleged theft. “I will remind everyone that an arrest is not evidence of guilt and allegations are not proof,” Cerritelli said in a statement provided to the Independent on behalf of his client. “This is the beginning of a very long process. I urge everyone to keep an open mind and avoid a rush to judgment.” Click here to read Jacobson’s arrest warrant in full. The arrest warrant affidavit was written by state police Lt. Sebastian Wordell on Feb. 19. It states that, at around 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 8, Acting Police Chief David Zannelli was interviewed by state police at the Troop E barracks in Montville. Zannelli provided “a signed and sworn typed statement” explaining that, on Dec. 23, 2025, New Haven police Sgt. Francisco Sanchez from the Intelligence Unit “called him about concerns” regarding Jacobson’s behavior: “Sanchez reported that Jacobson had not given Lieutenant [Derek] Werner money to pay informants for November and December 2025, which was highly unusual.” Zannelli explained that Jacobson “is the only person who controls, receives, and dispenses the informant’s money and then maintains a log of the transactions.” Zannelli said that Werner and Jacobson “communicate directly when requests for money are made” for informants. Zannelli said that Sanchez “was alarmed to learn that Chief Jacobson recently provided informant money to Werner, then reclaimed it from Werner’s office, leaving an IOU note.” This money was intended for confidential informants. Sanchez “ultimately paid them out of his own funds due to the reported shortage of funds.” Werner then reportedly told Zannelli that Jacobson had recently given Werner $2,000 to pay informants, “only to take back $1,000” and leave an “IOU” note on his desk “that he would repay the money, but never did.” That note read: “Took $1,000.00 12/23/25 Chief Jacobson.” “AC Zannelli said that Werner feared retaliation from Chief Jacobson, including position reassignment or cancellation of overtime, for alerting him to his behavior,” the warrant states. “Werner later told AC Zannelli that Chief Jacobson also asked him for a $500.00 personal loan at the end of December 2025.” Werner reportedly told Zannelli that Jacobson typically cashed a $5,000 check per month from the confidential-informants fund and that Werner signed out money directly to the chief, usually not more than $2,000 per month. “As far as Werner knows, Jacobson has received an average of $5,000.00 a month from money in the NEP account since 2019. Werner does not know what is done with the remaining amount of money. LT Werner and Chief Jacobson contact each other directly to arrange a meeting to discuss the transactions within Chief Jacobson’s office.” A police department supervisor of management service then told Zannelli on Jan. 3 that Jacobson had received two $5,000 checks in November and two $5,000 checks in December, totaling $20,000 withdrawn from the CI fund. Zannelli said that he, Assistant Chief Manmeet Bhagtana, and Assistant Chief Bertram Ettienne confronted Jacobson in his office on Monday, Jan. 5 about the missing CI funds and about his behavior. “AC Zannelli explained that he surreptitiously audio-recorded the conversation in fear of how Chief Jacobson might respond to the confrontation” and “in fear of reprisal and false accusations from Chief Jacobson” against the other assistant chiefs. Zannelli said that, after being confronted by the assistant chiefs, “Chief Jacobson admitted to spending too much money on gambling, said he was seeking help and a loan, and explained he misused funds but intended to replace them.” Jacobson said that this had been going on for just the month. Ettienne reportedly asked Jacobson how much money in total was missing, to which Jacobson replied $10,000 between the last two months. “AC Zannelli stated Chief Jacobson pleaded for them to let him replace the money, fix the logbook, and then retire.” Jacobson also reportedly acknowledged that he had let the assistant chiefs down and that he was sorry and embarrassed. He asked for “an opportunity to avoid potentially going to jail and losing his pension for misusing government funds.” Jacobson reportedly told the assistant chiefs that his “increase in gambling” had “gotten worse over the past couple of months.” Zannelli said that he had never seen Jacobson gambling and that “Jacobson tapped his cell pone on the conference table and said, ‘It’s on the app.'” State police Lt. Wordell then listened to the audio recording of the conversation as provided by Zannelli. He wrote that the recorded conversation was consistent with Zannelli’s account. “Do you have a gambling problem?” Zannelli asked Jacobson, per the recording. Jacobson reportedly replied: “I have spent too much money on gambling, yes.” Jacobson told the assistant chiefs that no one else was involved in his alleged theft of city funds. He also acknowledged that he had been talking with Zannelli — who had spent the past year as the assistant chief responsible for managing the CI fund — “about turning it over to him for a year now and I haven’t, and I wish I had.” On Friday, Jan. 9, Cerritelli — Jacobson’s lawyer — contacted the New Britain state’s attorney’s office and said that his client wished to invoke his Fifth Amendment right and to not be interviewed by the police. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) forensic accountant compared records from Jacobson’s personal checking account to the Narcotic Enforcement Program (NEP) banking account statements, informant expenditure reports, and ledger book records provided by the police department. The forensic accountant determined that, in the year 2025, Jacobson cashed 14 $5,000 checks totaling $70,000; $23,000 of that total was accounted for in expenditure reports, leaving $47,000 of NEP specific funds unaccounted for in 2025. When also taking into account $4,000 Jacobson allegedly stole from the Police Activity League (PAL) funds, that leaves a total of $51,000 in unaccounted for or misappropriated funds from 2025. The warrant states that Jacobson returned the total amount that he allegedly stole from PAL three weeks after depositing the $4,000 into his personal account. On a call with the executive director of PAL, Jacobson apologized for letting the police department down and stressed that he had not stolen from PAL. He said he had deposited the money to fund a toy drive, but after the coordinator learned about his alleged theft, she refused to accept the funds. Jacobson then returned all of the money to the PAL account on Jan. 16. The warrant also states that $14,000 of the $51,000 were located in Jacobson’s personal checking account before being transferred to other accounts, including DraftKings and FanDuel gambling applications. Meanwhile, approximately $34,500 in NEP funds that Jacobson cashed in 2024 remained unaccounted for, according to the warrant. That added up to a total of $85,500 in misappropriated and unaccounted funds from 2024 and 2025. After getting in touch with a lead investigator from the state’s Department of Consumer Protection Gaming Division, investigators found that Jacobson had accounts in the three approved gaming platforms in Connecticut: DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics. After reviewing records provided by these gaming platforms in response to search and seizure warrants, investigators found that Jacobson had wagered a total of $4,464,884.26 on DraftKings and FanDuel between Jan. 1, 2025 and Jan. 5, 2026. During that time period, Jacobson won $4,250,518.52, leaving him with a total net loss of $214,365.74. Based upon Jacobson’s banking records, between Jan. 1, 2025 and Jan. 8, 2026, Jacobson made 1,366 transfers from his personal checking account to FanDuel and DraftKings, totaling $373,855. During the investigation, investigators also learned that Jacobson “consistently withdrew on average $5,000.00 a month from the NEP account since he took over the responsibility of providing funds to pay confidential informants as well as controlled drug buys, in July of 2019.” “Due to Jacobson’s pattern of behavior, additional search warrants have been drafted, signed, and executed, with expanded time parameters covering the years prior to 2024.” The post Arrest Warrant: Chief Bet $4.4M Online appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less