New Haven Independent

After initially declining to offer the officer’s side, the police provided details to the Independent about the case, which raises anew questions about how the cops deal with immigrants.

The case involves Abel Sanchez, a 28-year-old landscaper who came here from Guatemala. This week he filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the cop, Dennis O’Connell, shoved him to the ground, punched, kicked him, handcuffed him, and then Maced him for no good reason in the Jan. 6 incident. The case landed Sanchez in the hospital (pictured). He pleaded guilty to a charge of interfering with a police officer but then filed both the federal lawsuit and an internal affairs complaint with the police department.

Sanchez filed the lawsuit (Click here to read the complaint) after taking his case to Unidad Latina en Accion, a local immigrants-rights group. The group collected evidence, interviewed witnesses, and found Sanchez a lawyer.

The city declined, over a five-day period, to offer O’Connell’s version of events before the Independent published a story on the case Monday. A mayoral spokeswoman said the city couldn’t discuss the case because it was under investigation.

But on Wednesday, police spokesman Joe Avery provided details from the police report O’Connell filed.

The incident took place Jan. 6. It began with a car parked in Fair Haven Heights and belonging to Sanchez’s brother-in-law, Miguel Adam Hernandez. The three parked nearby. Hernandez walked alone to the car.

He found Officer O’Connell there. According to O’Connell’s report, he was checking out a parking complaint.

According to the police report, O’Connell told Hernandez to step away from his car three times before escorting him to the sidewalk.

“As I escorted him he attempted to pull away from my grasp. I took him down to the prone position and he was handcuffed,” O’Connell wrote in the police report.

The report also noted that Hernandez had “a heavy odor of alcohol on his breath,” and was slurring his speech, Avery said.

At the time, Sanchez was not on the scene. He and his brother were down the street sitting in a car; the pair had come with Hernandez to check on Hernandez’s car. (It’s unclear from the two versions released so far why.) They had parked nearby;Hernandez had walked alone to his car.

As O’Connell was searching Hernandez, Abel Sanchez arrived on the scene to see what was going on.

According to both versions of the story, O’Connell told Sanchez to step back, and Sanchez told O’Connell that he knew Hernandez.

O’Connell then told Sanchez to get back a second time. What happened next is disputed.

According to Sanchez’s affidavit, he said “OK I’m going now,” before O’Connell took two steps toward him and shoved him to the ground.

In O’Connell’s version of events, he “escorted Sanchez to the sidewalk by the arm.” When Sanchez tried to swing out of his grip, O’Connell claimed, he tripped him, and gave Sanchez a short blast of OC spray to keep him from swinging his arms and legs, according to the police report.

In his complaint, Sanchez said that he was crying and asking for help, and that O’Connell sprayed him after he was already in handcuffs, unable to move his arms at all.

“He left me on my stomach in the back seat of the car. The policeman got out and closed the door. Three or four minutes later, while I remained on my stomach, the police returned and sprayed me in both ears and then in both eyes. After that he left,” Sanchez said.

Both Sanchez and O’Connell said a police wagon came to get him. They do not agree on where he was taken.

Sanchez said he was taken to a shop, not to central booking. His lawyer is still trying to locate the building.

O’Connell’s report stated that Sanchez was taken directly to police headquarters by the wagon.

“Sanchez was then transported to 1 Union Ave, and given a misdemeanor summons, due to the fact that he had sustained an injury on his nose during the brief struggle with the officer,” O’Connell wrote in the report.

Officer Avery said there is no shop near 1 Union Ave that police could have taken Sanchez to, because the wagons take people straight to detention for booking.

Before filing the complaint, Sanchez called John Jairo Lugo of Unidad Latina en Accion.

“In the beginning [Abel] was scared and he said he did not want to do it,” Lugo said. “We interviewed witnesses, and collected information and eventually called [attorney] Paul [Garlinghouse] and got him to agree to take the case.”

Taking his attorney’s advice, Sanchez pleaded guilty to a non-criminal infraction in February, and paid a $40 ticket in local court. According to Garlinghouse, Sanchez did not claim he was a victim of “false arrest” in local court because “nobody has ever won a false arrest claim.”

Instead, Garlinghouse filed a complaint with the police department’s Internal Values and Ethics division as soon as the fine was paid. He said he followed up with a federal lawsuit because of IVE’s history of siding with the police.

In New Haven, government has tried to build trust toward the police among immigrants through a policy preventing officers from inquiring about people’s immigration status.

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