Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Asst. Chief Melendez: Should cops investigate their own boss?
“Mortified” by officials’ handling of an internal investigation, the family of a man struck by a car driven by Assistant Chief Ariel Melendez has notified the city it plans to sue.
The notification came in a letter to the city from Paul Levin, a lawyer representing the family of Samuel Lewin.
Lewin, who’s 21 and lives in Old Saybrook, was crossing South Orange Street near the police station and near the Church Street South housing projects on Nov. 22 at 5:34 p.m. Right then, Melendez was leaving work. He pulled onto South Orange in his department car. Then he hit Lewin.
Lewin ended up in the hospital with a fractured jaw. Police promptly reported that it appeared the pedestrian, not the assistant chief, had been at fault, for allegedly darting out into the road. The department’s accident investigation team then went to work to reconstruct the accident — and decided Melendez wasn’t at fault, an assessment officials made the day of the accident.
Meanwhile, Lewin’s mother tried to obtain copies of reports from the police. They’ve been unsuccessful to date. In the process, she encountered what she and her lawyer called an improper runaround. Furthermore, the attorney questioned why the police were investigating themselves in the first place — and why cops were investigating one of their superior officers — rather than calling in the state police.
“Why would you lose the confidence of the public and the families involved by having your own people investigate something they should stay away from with a ten-foot pole?” Levin remarked in an interview Wednesday.
Melendez, who has been at the center of two other unrelated probes of alleged police misconduct, announced earlier this month that he’s retiring after 33 years on the force. He will receive a $124,500 annual pension.
Given Melendez’s problems, “there looks like there might be a tendency to protect the beleaguered officer,” attorney Levin added.
He stressed that he and the family are not questioning the conduct of officers who carried out the department’s investigation. Rather they question the decision not to have the state cops handle it. (“We never participated. We were never asked,” said state police Lt. Paul Vance.)
“We don’t call the state police in on every incident that involves a department traffic accident,” Chief Frank Limon responded Wednesday. “We have a traffic reconstruction team come in and conduct an investigation.”
Police Wednesday released copies of the police reports and accident investigation report. Read them here and here.
1 Union Ave. Visit
Attorney Levin’s notice to the city doesn’t mean the family will definitely file suit. It means the family is considering filing suit.
In addition to the lawsuit notification letter, attorney Levin sent Chief Limon a letter decrying allegedly the department’s “mortif[ying]” “behavior.” The letter described a visit to department headquarters by Pam Kruh, victim Lewin’s mother. Someone from the department had told her over the phone that she could come pick up a copy of the accident report, according to the letter. At the station she was told she couldn’t get the report, the letter continued. Instead the mother was ushered into the office of Capt. Leo Bombalicki, who, the lawyer claimed, “interrogated” the mother about what her son was doing at Church Street South. Lewin has had run-ins with police on the shoreline.
“The circumstances that led to Mrs. Kruh’s presence in the Captain’s office appear to be a pretense,” Levin’s letter charges. Read the letter here.
“We’ll review it and respond in due course,” city Corporation Counsel Victor Bolden said Wednesday about the letter and the notification to sue.
Kruh elaborated on her visit to the police station in a note emailed to the Independent. (The family did not wish to be interviewed for this story.) “I went to the front desk and asked for records,” she wrote. “The woman behind the desk said that this was records and asked for the case number. I gave it to her, she punched it up on the computer and then she got on the phone. She spoke with someone and hung up. She came over to the glass and said that I would have to contact the Connecticut State Police for it. She stated that they were involved because there was an officer involved. I explained that records had told me Tuesday that it was complete. She proceeded to write down two numbers, one was the CT State Police… and the other was Capt. Bombalicki … She said the Captain was in and he may be able to help.
“She asked me if I would like to call him. I thought he might be able to help me with the report, so I said yes. He came down and brought me to his office. I asked him if I could get the copy of the report from the Connecticut State Police. He asked me why they would have it? He went on to say New Haven investigated it. I told him the woman at the desk said they were involved and gave me their number. I showed him the paper she wrote the number on, he took it, looked at it and said they were not involved at all, she made a mistake. … He proceeded to tell me that the accident report, although not completed, found that Sam had exited his vehicle and was running across the street. He said Sam ran into the windshield of the the police car. I told him I didn’t think Sam would do that, and that Sam said he had his hand on the car door when he was hit. He said he had an accident team look at it and that’s what they found happened. I asked why would he run into traffic? Capt. Bombalicki responded ‘I don’t know, was he high?’ I said no. He then said what was he doing in New Haven? I said I didn’t know but it shouldn’t matter. He asked how old Sam was and I said 21. He said he was a man and should come in and speak with them. I thanked him for his time and got up to leave. As we were walking out he tried to show me the route that the deputy Chief took when he hit Sam. He was pointing out the front of the building at a street. I listened but at this point did not pay much attention as he upset me with his questions.”
Bombalicki said this week that there was no ruse involved. He couldn’t give the report to Kruh because the report hadn’t been completed yet. He said that because of Kruh’s concern he contacted the head of the accident reconstruction team, Sgt. David Guliuzza, and asked him to complete the investigation as soon as possible.
Church St. South Visit
After the Nov. 22 accident, Lewin underwent facial surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital. In addition to his fractured jaw, he has “lingering medical issues that are not clear at this point,” his lawyer said. “I don’t think he’s done with his medical care at this point.”
Police Officer Jonathan Young “briefly” interviewed Lewin at the hospital after the accident, according to a report he filed.
Lewin reported that he had just left a “house party” on Nov. 22 when he drove to South Orange Street and parked there, Young wrote. Lewin said a friend had asked him for a ride to Sadavi Mini Market, a store located inside the Church Street South housing complex.
“After approximately ten minutes Mr. Lewin felt [the friend] was taking too long, so he exited his car, and walked toward Sadavi’s to try to find him,” Young wrote. “Mr. Lewin was not sure exactly what route he took as he walked toward the market. He said he was in ‘the middle of the road’ when he struck by the car.”
“Under the victim’s own account, he acknowledged being in the middle of the roadway when he was struck,” the accident reconstruction team concluded in its report. It found Lewin to have violated Section 53 – 182 of the state general statutes, regarding pedestrian use of highways.
Police also interviewed Asst. Chief Melendez after the accident.
“Melendez stated he was traveling south on South Orange St. and was making the turn onto Columbus Ave., when all of a sudden, something struck his windshield,” according to a report of the interview. “Melendez stated that he immediately stopped his vehicle, at first believing someone had thrown a brick at it, however upon exiting, he observed Lewin lying in the roadway. Melendez called for medical personnel … Melendez stated that he never observed Lewin walking in the roadway.”
Investigators found no skid marks on the street to determine the direction Melendez was driving in. The nearby Board of Ed parking garage on Meadow Street has cameras facing the street, but the camera angles proved “inconclusive.” Police found no witnesses to the collision “other than an oncoming vehicles from Union Ave.”
They did speak with Glenn Worthy, a driver who was about to turn onto South Orange from Columbus Avenue at the time of the accident. Worthy told police he “observed Lewin stumbling in the middle of the roadway and fall to the ground. Worthy stated that prior to that he did not observe anyone walking in the roadway.
Two months after the accident, Lewin’s family and lawyer have yet to see any of that evidence. They intend to.
This makes me ashamed to live in New Haven.
The police force must be completely reorganized and rebuilt from the ground up. The union that protected the "rowdy rookie"? Out. The union leadership has demonstrated it has no concern for the citizens of New Haven.
Internal affairs and anyone who declared the Asst Chief innocent before looking into the accident? The people who have never given the report to the Lewis family? Out. You, much like the Asst Chief, have demonstrated a callous lack of concern regarding the constitution and the rights of citizens.
It is a shame that we have an ineffectual Mayor who is more concerned with image than transparency.
I know some great cops. I have no idea how they manage to retain their sanity and good judgement despite working in a department that is so clearly corrupt and non functional.