Two more of the five Yale students arrested during controversial raids on a downtown nightclub last fall have had their cases dismissed.
Steve Winter and Seth Bannon were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct after they showed up to the scene of a police raid at the Elevate Lounge on Oct. 2 last year. They said they did nothing wrong and were arrested for simply making a phone call.
Winter and Bannon’s cases were successfully dismissed on Tuesday in Connecticut Superior Court on Elm Street. That make four of five arrests from the Elevate raid that have resulted in dismissal. The case of Jordan Jefferson is still pending. He is the one arrestee who was not represented by attorney Hugh Keefe.
The Oct. 2 raid, which was part of a crackdown on rowdiness in the club district, prompted an outpouring of complaints about alleged verbal and physical abuse on the part of New Haven cops. Police — including SWAT cops — had stormed into the club to check IDs and ensure against overcrowding. They were caught on videotape shouting “who’s next?” after apparently subduing a man — allegedly Jordan Jefferson — on the ground. Click the play arrow to watch.
An Internal Affairs report subsequently found no fault with the actions of individual officers in the raid, but pointed to a systemic failure that led to misconduct.
Contributed photo.
Bannon.
“These dismissals, taken with the IA report, show that the Elevate arrests were an inappropriate action by an under trained and over aggressive police force,” Bannon said in an email following the dismissal of his case.
Bannon and Winter have said their arrests prompted them to take steps to combat police brutality in New Haven. They started by organizing a group called Citizens for Policing Reform, which is working to bring about new policies and procedures for the police department.
Unlike their fellow exonerated Eli, Bannon said he and Winter have no intention of bringing suit against the city for their wrongful arrest.
Fleur-De-Lis
In other legal news, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Avery:
Police received a weapons complaint at 9:40 a.m. Thursday. The caller reported that a man with a red sweatshirt with a “Saints Fleur-De-Lis logo” on it was seen with a handgun in his waistband near Edgewood Avenue and Orchard Street. He was seen getting into a red Chevy Impala and heading west on Chapel Street. Cops ran the plate number and went to 121 Pine St., the address the vehicle was registered to. They stopped the car there, found a BB gun, and arrested a 22-year-old. He was charged with breach of peace and illegal use of a facsimile firearm.
Crime Map
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NHPD
For block-by-block year-to-date crime information, plus daily crime maps, check out the Independent’s Crime Log.
Only one question for Rob Smuts.
What policies and training will be implemented, now that it is clear that our police administration does not understand constitutional rights?
This operation was conducted by the highest ranks of our force. Are we to believe that you simply failed to note a few bad eggs, or is there a systemic problem with the way the department is trained? Those seem the only two likely possibilities.
As the person appointed by the elected Mayor to be responsible for the NHPD, this is ultimately your problem to solve.