Markeshia Ricks Photo
David Sepulveda locked and handcuffed in a cruiser at the scene: Trump tweets about it; New Haven does it in real life.
No deal, Independent reporter David Sepulveda told the state.
No case, the judge ruled in the end.
Superior Court Judge Melanie Cradle made that ruling last week. She dismissed interfering and trespassing charges that New Haven police slapped on Sepulveda when they arrested him on Dec. 6 at Whalley Avenue and Harrison Street.
Police charged that Sepulveda had disobeyed orders to stay away from a potential bomb left on the street (which later proved to be harmless). Sepulveda said a cop pointed him to the scene — a statement never contradicted by the officer himself or anyone else at the department — and he left as soon as other cops arrived and told him to back away.
A subsequent internal affairs investigation found that a supervisor had violated police policy (which the department had agreed under a consent decree to enforce better) instructing officers not to take people’s cameras in such cases. But it cleared the supervisor of wrongdoing on the argument that she could have thought up with a better reason for her actions. The report also included an interview with officer Sepulveda identified as having pointed him to the advice and allowing him to proceed; the officer didn’t deny Sepulveda’s account, but rather claimed a loss of memory.
The state had sought a plea deal with Sepulveda in which his case would be nolled. Sepulveda, represented by Dan Erwin of the Pattis Law Firm, insisted he did nothing wrong and turned down the offer. He said he intended to take the case to trial. Instead the judge ended up dismissing the charges last week.
Sepulveda read a statement to the court repeating that he did nothing wrong while stating that he respects “the police’s need to control the scene in circumstances such as these” and the “legitimate” “concerns” they had about public safety.
“I never intended nor wished to place the police, nor anybody else in jeopardy,” he told the judge.
Click here to read a story by the New Haven Register’s Randall Beach about he judge’s dismissal.
Click here for an analysis of how police actions in the case and subsequent cover-up fit into a larger pattern of misconduct and official inaction.
At a time when free-speech advocates have raised concerns about potential clampdowns on the press by the Trump administration, this incident — the first actually involving police arresting a reporter doing his job and seizing his camera, then covering it up; rather than just Tweeting about maybe doing it — elicited criticism from statewide media advocacy groups. It has elicited no public second thoughts or apologies from police or city officials.
On Monday the police department won a New England “muzzle” award for its actions in this case.
Thomas Breen Photos
The pressure cookers believed at first to be potential bombs, after the scare passed and the road was reopened.
He should bring a law suit.