Nora Grace-Flood photo
Now-retired Officer Ronald Pressley (right) with attorney Matt Popilowski.
(Updated) Five arrested city cops pleaded not guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor charges stemming from their roles in the incident that left 36-Year-old New Havener Richard “Randy” Cox paralyzed while in police custody. They entered those pleas less than a week after one of those same arrested officers submitted his papers to retire.
That was the outcome of the latest court appearances by New Haven Police Sgt. Betsy Segui and Officers Oscar Diaz, Ronald Pressley, Luis Rivera, and Jocelyn Lavandier.
Sgt. Betsy Segui with Attorney Greg Cerritelli.
Key moments of the police arrest, transport, and detention of Richard Cox.
Each New Haven officer appeared in Courtroom 6A at the state courthouse at 235 Church St. at 11 a.m. Wednesday to enter pleas concerning the two misdemeanor charges apiece that they were arrested for on Nov. 28.
Each officer pleaded not guilty to one count of second-degree reckless endangerment and one count of “cruelty to persons.” All five also agreed to return to court on Feb. 23 for the next pre-trial hearing in their respective cases.
State Superior Court Judge Gerald Harmon set that next court date after defense attorney Dan Ford, who represented Officer Jocelyn Lavandier in court Wednesday, said he and the broader legal team representing the arrested cops are in the process of receiving a “voluminous amount of discovery” that will inform the criminal trial. Harmon said that incoming evidence provided by the state in this case won’t be integrated into civil reviews such as the investigation undertaken by the city to determine whether these officers will keep their jobs in New Haven.
While all of the officers have been on paid administrative leave pending a city Internal Affairs investigation into the conduct that led to their arrests, one of those officers — Ronald Pressley — has now retired from the force effective Jan. 7, according to the city’s latest weekly personnel report.
State Superior Court Judge Gerald Harmon.
Wednesday’s court appearances and the related charges follow a June 19 incident that left Cox paralyzed from the neck down after sustaining a serious spinal injury while being transported to the 1 Union Ave. police detention center. Rather than waiting for a medical crew to attend to Cox’s crumpled and paralyzed body, officers at the police lock-up accused Cox of lying, demanded he stand up, pulled him out of the van, placed him in a wheelchair, then dragged him across the floor into a cell. The case has sparked national outrage, and has led Cox’s family to file a $100 million civil lawsuit against the city in federal court. Read more about the cops’ arrests and that incident in detail here.
The arrested cops’ latest court appearance also comes several days after those same police officers and their attorneys started to pursue a new legal tactic in that same federal lawsuit that looks to shift some of the blame for Cox’s injuries onto other involved parties. On Jan. 6, all five cops filed a collective motion in federal court suggesting that the EMTs who responded to the scene are also at fault for Cox’s paralysis for allegedly failing to properly assess Cox’s injuries and direct police officers to get Cox immediate care rather than first moving him to a jail cell.
Attorney Matt Popilowski and Officer Oscar Diaz.
Officer Oscar Diaz, who was driving the van carrying Randy Cox when he suddenly slammed on the brakes to avoid crashing into another vehicle at the intersection of Division and Mansfield Streets, has also argued in a separate court filing that the unidentified driver of that other car should be held liable. The New Haven Register first reported on both of those filings here. Read both of the independent motions here and here.
In the wake of the incident, the city has upgraded its transportation policies and department-wide training on “active bystandership” and deescalation in hopes of avoiding a similar future incident.
In an email press release sent out Wednesday afternoon, national civil rights attorney Ben Crump — who has been representing Cox and his family in the wake of the June 19 incident — decried the cops’ not-guilty pleas. “It is absolutely shameful that these officers fail to see how their actions led to the trauma and severe injury that caused Randy Cox to be paralyzed from the chest down,” Crump is quoted as saying in that press release. “Since these five officers failed to take accountability for their actions, they will now have to face a trial, where the prosecution will present the significant evidence against their claims of no guilt. We are confident that will show just how little humanity Randy was shown and how that contributed to his lifelong, catastrophic injuries.”
Police Chief: Pressley "Entitled To Retirement"
Paul Bass Photo
Chief Jacobson.
In a Wednesday afternoon phone interview, New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson told the Independent that Pressley’s choice to retire during an active Internal Affairs investigation means that that internal investigation, at least in regards to Pressley’s conduct, is now over.
That’s because Internal Affairs investigations are of police officers actively employed by the city police department and, as of Jan. 7, Pressley is no longer a city employee.
Jacobson also said that Pressley’s decision to retire when he did means that he is almost certainly sacrificing the possibility of working as a police officer again down the line.
“The new police accountability [bill] precludes him from ever being a police officer again,” Jacobson said, because the act of retiring during an active investigation means that Pressley will be stripped of his certification from the Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST).
Theoretically, Jacobson continued, Pressley could attempt to seek reemployment with another force — but he would need to start “from step one,” according to Jacobson. The chief added no police department would be willing to hire someone “in this day and age” who resigned during the middle of an open investigation, such as Pressley.
The chief also said that Pressley is “entitled to retirement. He did 22 years on the streets of New Haven. I can’t stop that retirement nor do I want to… He wasn’t charged with a felony or with anything related to stealing at work or using his police powers to arrest people he shouldn’t have arrested.”
Despite removing himself from the city’s investigation, Pressley is, of course, still subject to the criminal proceedings moving forward in state court.
In the meantime, Jacobson said, “our internal affairs investigation [of the other four involved officers] is in full swing right now.” He said those investigations and any accompanying discipline recommendations for those officers should be released within the next month or two.
Editor: Please correct the following so I can understand the meaning: "Harmon said the evidence won’t provided ....."
As for the new strategy of blaming the EMTs, this will buy time while the City figures out how much it can pay and over what period of time.
[Editor's note: Thanks very much, I just fixed my typo in that sentence. My understanding from Nora's reporting is that the judge said that the evidence provided by the state in this criminal case will not automatically be integrated into other investigations, such as the police department's ongoing Internal Affairs investigation or the separate federal court $100 million civil lawsuit filed by Mr. Cox's family.]