Sections

Neighborhoods

Features

Follow Us

NHI Newsletter

Some Favorite Sites

Government/ Community Links

Latinos Filing Federal Suit Against East Haven

by Paul Bass | Oct 25, 2010 6:41 pm

(24) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Immigrant Tales

East Haven is being slammed again for alleged brutality against Latino immigrants, this time in the form of a civil rights lawsuit to be filed Tuesday in federal court in New Haven.

Students from the Yale Law School plan to file the suit on behalf of local Latinos who charge that East Haven police have violated their civil rights through, physical abuse, illegal search and seizure, and entering their homes and businesses without permission, according to Dermot Lynch, the lead law student on the case.

The charges—of police frequently Tasering or beating immigrants based on their skin color—stem from allegations that are currently the focus of a separate U.S. Department of Justice probe into alleged civil rights violations by the East Haven police. The town’s police have consistently denied the charges.

The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit are expected to detail their experiences at a 2 p.m. press conference Tuesday outside U.S. District Court on Church Street. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the East Haven police department as well as the town; it also seeks “injunctive relief that would require the department to review its policies and procedures,” said Yaman Salahi, a student member of the law school’s Worker and Immigrants Rights Advocacy Clinic, who worked on the case. The defendants include East Haven Police Chief Leonard Gallo, who is on administrative leave as East Haven’s Capone administration looks at reforming the department.

The nine Latino plaintiffs come from both East Haven and New Haven, according to Salahi. They are Marcia Chacon, Wilfrido Matute, Segundo Aguayza, Jose Luis Abarracin, Welinton Salinas, John Espinosa, Guido Xavier Criollo, Edgar Torres, and Yadanny Garcia.

A tenth plaintiff is Father Jim Manship of St. Rose of Lima Church in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood. A 2009 arrest of Manship first brought the issue to attention; Manship was arrested while filming East Haven cops allegedly harassing Latino business people and customers in a store on Main Street near the New Haven border. Police alleged that he was pointing an object at them that they thought might have been a gun. A video later released, however, revealed that the officers knew Manship was brandishing a camera, not a weapon. (Click on the play arrow to watch that video.) The charges against him were dropped, more people came forward with stories of alleged harassment, and the federal civil rights investigation began.

The suit charges that police routinely harassed immigrants and tried to force them and customers of their businesses to leave town. The suit also reprises allegations that police set up outside the immigrant-run My Country Store on Main Street to ticket and otherwise harass customers.

Town attorney Hugh Keefe has defended the town against these allegations in the past. He said Tuesday morning he’s not representing the town in this matter; attorney Patty Cofrancesco is.

In a press release issued Monday night, David Rosen, a local attorney working with the Yale students, called the problem structural, not the result of a few rogue officers.

“East Haven’s leaders have failed to ensure its officers are following the law,” the release quotes Rosen as saying. “They refused to fix the problem or make the changes necessary to guarantee a professional police department.”

The lawyers’ press release also quotes a plaintiff, Marcia Chacón, who said police harassment cost her business at My Country Store, which she owns.

“We have spoken out against racial profiling for months on end, but police officers continue to single us out and harass us based on the color of our skin. We are filing this suit, because we hope it will help bring an end to this abuse,” she is quoted as saying.

The plaintiffs charge that police regularly ticketing cars at one store declared that customers could “park in New Haven and walk.” They charge that an officer regularly entered a house with Latino families illegally, without a warrant, to harass its occupants, at one point suggesting to a woman in front of her children that she leave the country.

The plaintiffs also cite previously reported statistics about the issuance of traffic tickets. Of 376 tickets given out in one stretch between mid-June and early 2009, some 60 percent went to Hispanic drivers. Hispanics make up 6 percent of East Haven residents. (Read more about that here.)

Read some of the stories about some of the incidents that led up to the suit, first reported in the Independent, here, here, and here.

Tags: ,

Share this story with others.

Share |

Post a Comment

Comments

posted by: StLouie on October 25, 2010  10:38pm

Good, hopefully the DOJ will also be arresting a few of the ...at the EHPD, a few will probably be named in this suit.

Its a shame that the ... give everyone there a bad name.

posted by: Paulf on October 26, 2010  5:58am

... I’m so tired hearing about racial profiling, its getting old,get your car registered, insured etc and you will have no problem coming to this great city.

posted by: Bill on October 26, 2010  6:31am

It’s all about the money.

posted by: Threefifths on October 26, 2010  7:48am

posted by: Paulf on October 26, 2010 6:58am
... I’m so tired hearing about racial profiling, its getting old,get your car registered, insured etc and you will have no problem coming to this great city.

For real.May be you great city is doing this.

Records Show New Jersey Police Withheld Data on Race Profiling
By DAVID BARSTOW and DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Published: October 12, 2000

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CE0D7173FF931A25753C1A9669C8B63

posted by: Will New Haven on October 26, 2010  7:50am

Please NHI, you have the information, enlighten the readers on the breakdown of the nature of the 60% of 376 m.v. violations received on that stretch of road. Just have the editor answer the question here. No need for another article.

posted by: Just My Thoughts on October 26, 2010  9:06am

There should be a criminal investigation.
Cops are out of control, their unwarranted actions and behaviors are sometimes just as dangerous as the criminals without badges.
And I’m not talking about them rushing to emergencies, they speed and disobey traffic laws yet are sworn to uphold and enforce them.  We have cops getting drunk and arrested yet unions protect them. We have cops arresting people for documenting their misconduct, lying about it and having union and prosecutorial protection. 
The List goes on and on. 
I hope there are arrests in the East Haven case to start.  That should send an message that we respect officers doing their jobs but when they cross the line, they are and will be treated accordingly-as criminals.

posted by: Will New Haven on October 26, 2010  9:11am

My question above will likely also clarify why the tickets issued to Hispanic drivers are so much more expensive.  And the April 10, 2010 NHI article/graphic (referenced above) shows only the average fine based on ethnicity, again, not WHAT the infraction is.  So if the Yale group are not going to compare like-for-like what’s the difference?  Purposely skewing the results as a means to their end, that’s what.  NHI can we please have a breakdown of the traffic offenses we are talking about here? In all fairness to everybody.

posted by: CBA on October 26, 2010  9:59am

This federal lawsuit is another blatant example of why Yale has such a poor relation with the surrounding communities. In this particular situation, we have a group of pampered elitists engaging in legal action which East Haven taxpayers will have the burden of defending.  If they pursue this matter and lose,  they (the law students ) should be held to pay the Town’s legal expenses

posted by: Named defendants on October 26, 2010  11:10am

From the Register

The suit, a draft of which was provided to the Register on the condition that it not be quoted directly, names the Police Department, the town, Chief of Police Leonard Gallo — who currently is on administrative leave at least in part as a result of issues related to the lawsuit — and Officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari, Jason Zullo, Vincent Ferrara, David Olson, Michael Sorbo, Cheryl Conyers and Sgts. Frank Montagna and Edward Lennon, along with unidentified officers “John Does 1-10.”

Gee surprise

posted by: Non-Latino on October 26, 2010  11:43am

CBA this is not why Yale has bad relationships with surrounding communities.  In many cities people who look non-white are treated unfairly.  If you don’t know that than perhaps you need to educate yourself (as the Yale Law students are doing).  For you to call the Yale Law students elitist is so ignorant.  I am embarrassed that you wrote something so silly.  You know nothing about the Law students who are representing the 9 plaintiff so why would you assume them to be elitist.  The Law students evidently see an injustice being done.  You should be standing beside the Latino community who live in East Haven to ensure they are treated as fairly as you.  You should raise your fist in the air in support of the lawsuit filed against East Haven.  You should be outraged that some East Haven police officers have put this financial burden on the taxpayers of East Haven.
If the Law students pursue this matter and win…then what?  Is the good City of East Haven going to give them back the money for all the traffic tickets?  How is the good City of East Haven going to repay the Latino community for discriminating against them based the way they look?  How many Latinos are on the East Haven police force?  Do you understand that if the Latino population in East Haven is 6% then 6% of the East Haven police should be Latino?

posted by: RD on October 26, 2010  12:27pm

Overly aggressive police actions against innocent citizens should never be acceptable. How many years has this bad policing and treatment of recent immigrants been happening? Is this just East Haven or does this include surrounding towns? Does anyone remember the Avon Police Department treatment of Latinos driving from Hartford through Avon to the Barkhamsted reservoir? Profiling was rampant during traffic stops there too and don’t remember the outcome.

posted by: eli antonio on October 26, 2010  3:09pm

I’ve never been mugged, robbed, assaulted or threatened in East Haven.  I’ve been all these plus more in New Haven.
I’m o.k. with this. 
P.S., my mom is itaItaliany dad is latLatinoegally of course.

posted by: nfjanette on October 26, 2010  3:29pm

Overly aggressive police actions against innocent citizens should never be acceptable.

Agreed.  Now, how about police actions against citizens - and non-citizens - that are guilty of a wide variety of legal violations, many related to safe, legal drivers and/or safe, legal motor vehicles?  Because, that appears to be the point of some of the complaints: never mind that you caught people, we don’t like that you were looking for them as a targeted group.  I have serious issues with that position.  I do not want dangerous drivers and/or motor vehicles allows on the streets of any town and I couldn’t care less about the racial/ethnic background of the operators.

posted by: will new haven on October 26, 2010  4:22pm

Non-Latino, although you didn’t address any of your comments referencing mine, I’m wondering if YOU understand that although the Yale law students might see an injustice, they are unfairly and inaccurately reporting the results of their findings with regards to tickets written by EHPD in order to bolster their claims. And I’m really curious why you think the courts should refund ticket revenue money to ANYBODY even if your comment was sarcasm. It just goes to the whole entitlement issue this subject is really part & parcel to.

posted by: Threefifths on October 26, 2010  6:20pm

posted by: eli antonio on October 26, 2010 4:09pm
I’ve never been mugged, robbed, assaulted or threatened in East Haven.  I’ve been all these plus more in New Haven.
I’m o.k. with this. 
P.S., my mom is itaItaliany dad is latLatinoegally of course.

You are lucky.This is going on across this country.Your luck may run out one day.

Thousands of Stops Made by New York Police Are Unjustified, Study Says
By AL BAKER and RAY RIVERA
Published: October 26, 2010


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/nyregion/27frisk.html?_r=1&hpw;

posted by: TonyEH on October 26, 2010  7:13pm

One of the plantifs in this case has a house on my street rented to 10 people. Is that legal?

posted by: Not Racist on October 26, 2010  8:20pm

I’ll be just as infuriated as the Yale Law students when I see a Latino pays a $100 fine and a white pays $25 for the same violation.

Until then, it appears that East Haven police are onto something, IE: Latinos are committing a disproportionately high amount of traffic violations and typically the violation is more serious than a non-Hispanic.

posted by: dee on October 26, 2010  11:41pm

Will, the infractions on the traffic stops in immaterial. The point of that study was that, by comparing names on the tickets to lists of Hispanic surnames, they identified that 60% of the tickets were written to people with Hispanic names, but the police officers identified the race of the person as “Hispanic” on the ticket only 5% of the time. Why the disparity, unless they knew they were stopping Hispanics at a disproportionately high rate, and were trying to cover it up? The whole POINT of putting the race on the ticket is to prevent racial profiling by forcing police officers to identify the race of who they are stopping, making profiling easy to identify. Unless, of course, the cops lie on the ticket.

posted by: William Kurtz on October 27, 2010  8:20am

Data on tickets written seems to be not entirely useful.  Is there data on who the police are actually stopping, collected whether or not a ticket is written?

posted by: Not Racist on October 27, 2010  8:50am

All of this is conjecture and WHAT IF, dee. So what I’m saying is, WHAT IF the police have found that when they pull over a Latino in East Haven, that person is likely to have something seriously amiss with either the vehicle, their license, the registration or the insurance?  It’s the other side of profiling. What are they supposed to do, ignore it?  Does one group have the RIGHT to drive around committing motor vehicle violations, whereas another does not?  This issue needs more research before just trumpeting the racism card to garner attention.

posted by: kevin on October 27, 2010  9:02am

TonyEH

The answer depends on (1) how the property is zoned and (2) whether the residents are related. If the area is zoned single family (as I suspect it is) and the people are related by blood, marriage, or adoption, then having 10 occupants in the house is legal. If you are talking about 10 unrelated people living in a house that is zoned single-family, that probably violates the zoning law.

posted by: The Count on October 27, 2010  1:09pm

Mayor DeStefano can learn from these guys, the New Haven NAACP and Emma Jones, as he obviously couldn’t stand up to East Haven.

posted by: Truth Avenger on October 27, 2010  10:21pm

Got A call here in New Haven from a solicitor representing The East Haven Police Department-ostensibly collecting for the “Christmas fund for kids.”  Afterward, I thought it a little ironic that the town that has called for secession from any New Haven ties, has no problem with soliciting New Haven residents for money. 

Accounts of racism and racial profiling coming out of East Haven have reached critical mass.  No longer anecdotes, the accounts suggest that a realignment or attitude adjustment must be imposed through legal action.  Yes, East Haven should pay for its abridgment of personal rights and propensity for profiling.

To Eli Antonio: I’ve lived in New Haven all my life and have never been “mugged, robbed, or assaulted.”  I have, however, been the victim of opportunists who turn every situation into an opportunity to slander New Haveners and the city in which we live. New Haven bashers are definitely part of the problem and betray their own ignorance through their crude, judgmental accusations.

posted by: sp on October 28, 2010  5:50pm

East Haven needs a serious personality adjustment, ...Clint Eastwood style! This town is ignorant, arrogant ...and defiant! They are determined to send race relations back to the 19th century. Hope the Dept. of Justice sends this little town a clear message!..“Clean up your act, or we’ll clean it up for you”. Racism is not to be tolerated. Enough is Enough!!

get ANDI

Events Calendar

view the full calendar »

SeeClickFix »

Water leak from hydrant?
Feb 22, 2012 2:54 pm
Address: 75 Bishop St New Haven, CT
Rating: 1

On the north side of Bishop, starting from the hydrant at 75, water is slowly flowing east along the...

more »
one of the traffic signals is out
Feb 22, 2012 5:01 pm
Address: Middletown Ave New Haven, CT
Rating: 2

the traffic signal in the right lane of rte 80 is out at this intersection

Flyerboard

Sponsors

N.H.I. Site Design & Development

smartpill design