Nine days after a police officer slammed her to the ground in handcuffs, a 15-year-old girl received a visit from New Haven’s police chief — along with an apology.
“I’m not here to do the investigation,” Chief Dean Esserman told the teenager Tuesday in the living room of her family’s home in the Columbus West housing complex in the Hill. “I’ll let the investigators do that. I’m not here to interfere with your lawyer. I’m here just to show my respect. I’m your police chief. And I’m also a parent. I just wanted to see you and tell your mother and tell your grandmother that I’m really sorry.
“Whatever happened that day on St. Patrick’s Day — that already happened. I just don’t want you to feel the police department doesn’t care about you.
“If you did wrong, at the right time and place, you’ll tell the truth. If we did wrong, at the right time and place we’ll tell the truth. That’s not why we’re here to today. We’re here today to show respect.”
Esserman arrived at the Boyd family home during a day of playing catch-up.
The chief had been in France on a family vacation for the past week while a controversy erupted in New Haven over the March 15 arrest of the 15-year-old girl outside Buffalo Wild Wings on Church Street during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. During the March 15 arrest, Officer Joshua Smereczynsky handcuffed the girl, then slammed her to the ground, causing her face to bleed and her shoulder to fracture. Police charged the girl with third-degree assault, breach of peace, and carrying a dangerous weapon. Her family has denied accusations that the girl resisted arrest; her mother said the girl had carried a knife in her bag out of fear of attack from an older girl who runs with the Slut Wave gang — and who allegedly attacked her inside Buffalo Wild Wings.
A video of the arrest went viral; the police launched an internal investigation as a result. Top cops then erected a blue wall of public silence that exacerbated community-police tensions.
Valerie Boyd, Ann Boyd, Dean Esserman in the living room Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, his first day back in town, Esserman phoned Valerie Boyd, the teen’s mother, and Ann Boyd, the grandmother and for decades a leading Hill neighborhood activist. He apologized for what happened to their daughter. He asked to come visit. They said yes.
Esserman arrived at noon with two assistant chiefs in tow, Anthony Campbell and Al Vazquez. Entering the room, he found not just the family, but a reporter as well as a family friend. He said he preferred the meeting to remain private but acceded to the family’s decision to allow a reporter to be present.
The 15-year-old girl ( who was included in the 2013 edition of The Best Basketball Players of the AAU, or Amateur Athletic Union) was upstairs as the chiefs took seats in the downstairs living room. Valerie Boyd said the girl had been bullied repeatedly in the months prior to the arrest, and then been threatened again at school in the wake of the Buffalo Wild Wings incident; she has since stayed home as a result.
The conversation began with the adults.
Esserman asked the Boyds how they are faring. Valerie Boyd, who has worked as a home-health aide for 30 years, told Esserman she appreciated his apologetic call that morning. She said she’d checked with her attorney, who advised her it was OK to have the chief visit.
“I could have been burying my child today and not just looking at her,” Boyd proceeded to tell the chief. “Being thrown to the ground, close to her temple, and the scars remain … The way she was thrown head first. Why wasn’t my child getting medical attention from the police department?”
“I respect that question,” Esserman responded, his voice hushed. “And I’ve asked the same thing. We’re all going to get an answer. But first I want to tell you I’m sorry for what happened. I say that from the heart. I don’t care what happened beforehand. Whatever led up to the arrest, led up to the arrest. We have video on that. That doesn’t matter. Once you’re arrested, we’re supposed to protect you. And I’m sorry that happened. And the officer, who I really don’t know well but who I understand is a decent and compassionate person, is very upset that it happened too. …
“In this business we arrest people. But we should arrest them in a way that keeps them safe. … [Smereczynsky] was scared. When he saw the knife he got scared. That doesn’t mean there weren’t better ways to handle it. I’m not here to make excuses.”
Valerie Boyd described what happened to her daughter when she returned to school the Tuesday after the arrest: “She was cater-cornered by five girls in the bathroom. One of them said she was in Buffalo Wild Wings. She was going to beat my daughter’s ass and smack her. I got the call form the school that my daughter was placed in an office with the door locked for her safety.” The girl has been home ever since.
“What do we do to help her?” Esserman asked. “For her to have a knife and mace that day, she must have felt unsafe before that. Is there something we can do to help her? For the school to help her? She must be scared.”
“I’m already in the process of that,” Boyd responded.
Boyd revealed some private information about pain the family has encountered. That led to tears, promises of support, and hugs all around.
Then Esserman asked if it would be OK to speak with the daughter. She came downstairs.
She sat silently on a couch while the chief repeatedly told her that the police and the city care about her and want to keep her safe. She nodded when the chief asked her if she’d been having troubles at school, if she’d felt unsafe.
“You’re having troubles in school? Having troubles in general? Join the club. We all have troubles at some point,” the chief told her..
“We’re going to sort this out, all right? We’re going to sort it all out. If you did something wrong, let the court figure that out. If we did something wrong, we’ll figure it out. But right now … we’re here just to tell you people care about you. You and your family are going to be treated with dignity and respect, and you’re loved.”
Ann Boyd spoke up, saying the family had felt “let down” because it had brought numerous complaints to the department over the past year of threats and physical attacks against the girl. She said those threats had been building up to the confrontation that occurred inside Buffalo Wild Wings on parade day.
Esserman asked the family to bring out records of those complaints. He promised to assign a cop to get in touch with the family about how those complaints were handled, and about keeping the daughter safe from here on in. He also promised to have the neighborhood’s top cop pay the family a visit.
“My child is being bullied,” Valerie Boyd said. She said she is in touch with her school, Amistad High, about the problem, which is also occurring out in the community. (The girl who allegedly attacked the teen does not attend the school. Amistad High Principal Chris Bostock late Tuesday also confirmed that the other girl involved does not attend the school. He went on to say in a statement that the school has worked with the girl and her family on the problem.)
Fifty minutes after arriving, the chiefs stood up to leave. Esserman shook the girl’s hand. Another round of hugs with the grown-ups ensued.
After he left, the Boyds said they were pleased with the visit and the response from the chief. Next, they said, they hope to be equally pleased with follow-up action.
Previous coverage of this story:
• Video Captures Cop Slamming Girl To Ground
• This Time, Cop Kept On Streets During IA Probe
• Anybody Home?
• Harp: Place Investigated Cop On Desk Duty
This is the kind of human response we need to see more often.
Esserman knows how to do the right thing.