Cox Case Cop Firing Delayed, Again

For the second time in two weeks, police commissioners tabled a recommendation by Police Chief Karl Jacobson to fire a cop for their role in the mishandling of Richard ​“Randy” Cox, roughly 11 months after the 36-year-old New Havener suffered paralyzing injuries while in police custody.

That was the upshot of the latest Zoomed online meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday night. 

The commissioners spent two hours in private executive session reviewing the chief’s recommendation to terminate Officer Luis Rivera for his role in the June 19, 2022, incident that left Cox paralyzed from the shoulders down and away from home at a rehabilitation facility.

Upon returning into public view, the commissioners voted unanimously to postpone their vote on whether or not Rivera should be fired.

“Commissioners have reserved the right to table this matter and come back at a later date to vote,” Commission Chair Evelise Ribeiro said Tuesday night. She did not state the date on which the commission would reconvene to make a final decision on the chief’s recommendation in regards to fire Rivera.

The vote took place less than two weeks after the commissioners spent three hours in private executive session during a special meeting on April 27 to review the chief’s recommendation that Officer Jocelyn Lavandier also be fired for her role in Cox’s mishandling. That meeting also ended with the commissioners voting to table the chief’s termination recommendation.

The two separate police commission meetings and two separate postponement votes come as criminal cases against Rivera, Lavandier and fellow city police officers Betsy Segui, Oscar Diaz, and the now-retired Ronald Pressley continue to make their way through state court. Each has been arrested and charged with one misdemeanor count of second-degree reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count of​“cruelty to persons” for their roles in Cox’s mishandling. All five arrested cops have pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Police Chief Karl Jacobson recommended in March that Lavandier, Rivera, Segui, and Diaz all be terminated from the police force following the conclusion of the department’s Internal Affairs investigation into each of their respective roles in Cox’s mishandling.

At a press conference announcing the findings of that months-long IA investigation, Jacobson said the department already had enough evidence to move forward with firing the cops, and that ​“the days of waiting for criminal cases to conclude” before discipline can be delivered ​“needs to stop.” He pushed for faster progress on their formal terminations, responding to what he described as requests from the community to be ​“transparent, accountable, swift.”

Asked for comment Wednesday morning following the police commission tabling vote, Jacobson supported the commission’s decision-making. 

“I think it’s a process and I respect the process,” he said of the termination hearings. ​“The board wants to hear all the evidence in each case.” Diaz and Segui have not yet had hearings before the police commission in regards to the chief’s recommendation that they too be fired. (Pressley cannot be fired, since he has already retired from the police department.)

Tuesday’s vote comes roughly 11 months after police arrested Cox on weapons charges without incident at a Lilac Street block party on June 19, 2022. En route to the police station, Officer Diaz, the driver of a prisoner conveyance van, slammed on the brakes to avoid crashing into another vehicle at the intersection of Division and Mansfield Streets. That abrupt stop sent Cox flying head first into the wall of the van, injuring his neck and spine. The driver of the van later called for medical help but, instead of asking for an ambulance to come to the scene, the driver proceeded to take Cox to the detention center at 1 Union Ave. There, 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 sparked national outrage.

Cox’s family, represented by national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, subsequently filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against the city, the police department, and the involved officers seeking damages for the officers’ alleged violations of Cox’s civil rights. That case continues to make its way through federal court. The incident led the city to upgrade its transportation policies and implement department-wide training on​“active bystandership” and deescalation in hopes of avoiding a similar future incident.