Madeline Gleason v. Janice Smolinski and Paula Bell: A New Haven judge has awarded more than $52,000 to the former girlfriend of one of the state’s best-known missing persons, ruling that the missing man’s family harassed and defamed the woman while accusing her of being involved in his disappearance.

Madeline Gleason, a school bus driver from Woodbridge, dated Billy Smolinski, 31, for a time until his disappearance on Aug. 24, 2004.