Facebook Live video images of Lugo's arrest on Monday.
City police arrested activist John Lugo and he spent the night in lockup after a parking dispute on Howe Street escalated.
That arrest took place Monday night.
Citizen videos of the incident have been making the rounds on Facebook, and fellow Unidad Latina en Accion (ULA) members rallied Tuesday morning at the state courthouse at 121 Elm St.
That’s where Lugo, a prominent local immigrant rights activist, was arraigned on two criminal charges: one misdemeanor count of interfering with an officer/resisting arrest, and one count of failure to comply with fingerprinting requests.
Police Officer's Version
Here’s the police version of what happened, according to a narrative filed with the state court in this case by New Haven Police Officer Kenneth Cobb.
Cobb wrote that, at around 9:30 p.m. Monday, he was dispatched to Howe Street regarding a motor vehicle accident.
A woman had called the police because, she told Cobb, she came outside to “find another unoccupied vehicle pressed against her vehicle.”
Cobb saw that “another vehicle’s front pressed against the rear” of the woman’s vehicle.
When she moved her car, the officer saw a “visible scuff mark” on the the rear of the vehicle. The woman said that that mark “was not there prior [to] the accident.”
While writing down the woman’s information, “an unknown male arrived,” Cobb wrote. That man was John Lugo.
“The unknown male began to argue with” the woman who had called the police, Cobb wrote.
The officer told Lugo he had seen his car pressed up against the woman’s car.
Lugo responded that his vehicle had been parked there first, and that the woman had driven her car into his.
Cobb said he had to fill out an accident report, and then asked Lugo for his license, registration, and insurance.
This is where the incident began to veer a bit off the rails.
Cobb wrote in the arresting officer’s narrative that Lugo “quickly started walking away from the accident scene. I chased after the unknown male and told him he was not free to leave the scene. I put my arm in front of the unknown male and the unknown male walked through my arm. I grabbed both of the unknown male’s arms and told him to put his hands behind his back. The unknown male continued to walk away from the scene and actively resist by pulling his arms forward. I held the unknown male’s arms from the middle of Howe St to the front yard of 37 Howe St. In front of 37 Howe St I brought the unknown male to the ground on a grass lawn and handcuffed him for interfering with a police investigation.”
Cobb found the keys to one of the cars in question in Lugo’s pocket. He then found a piece of mail with Lugo’s name in the car. He then looked up Lugo’s name in the city police database, and confirmed that the man he had handcuffed and Lugo were the same person.
“I asked Lugo was their insurance for the vehicle, Lugo replied ‘Fuck you’,” Cobb wrote. “I offered a misdemeanor summons to Lugo for interfering with police but Lugo declined to sign the summons.” Police subsequently transported him by conveyance van to lockup at 1 Union Ave.
“At this time, I could not find fault for this accident due to conflicting statement[s] from” the woman and from Lugo, Cobb wrote. “I will follow up with a canvass for camera footage.”
A case supplemental report written by police booking Officer Jose Luna states that, at around 12:41 a.m. on Tuesday, he asked three officers to escort Lugo from his cell at 1 Union Ave. to the booking office “so he could be photographed and fingerprinted. Officer Pressley advised me Lugo refused to be processed.”
So Luna charged Lugo with “failure to submit to fingerprints.”
Lugo's Side
In a phone interview with the Independent Tuesday afternoon, Lugo offered a nearly identical version of events as laid out in Officer Cobb’s narrative — with one key difference.
When the officer asked him for his license, insurance and registration, Lugo said, he realized he had left that documentation at ULA’s office nearby on Howe Street.
So Lugo started walking away from the officer to retrieve that paperwork from his office, he said.
“He said, ‘Don’t walk away from me,’ ” Lugo recalled. And the officer grabbed him, he said. “That’s when hell started, because I told him, ‘Don’t grab me.’ ”
Lugo said the officer pressed him against a wall and threw him to the ground on a nearby lawn. “Then five more police showed up.”
“I made their life difficult,” Lugo said. “Maybe I overreacted. Yes, I did overreact.”
Body cam footage released by the police department Tuesday night shows Lugo saying, “I’m not going to show you anything,” when ordered by Cobb to provide license, insurance and registration. A few minutes later, after Cobb has taken Lugo to the ground, Lugo can be heard saying, “I just tried to get in my fucking office.” Click on the video below to watch that body cam footage in full.
What sparked that overreaction was not just the police officer grabbing him as he walked towards his office, Lugo told the Independent, but also his frustration at the speedy response and large police presence at an incident involving a scratch on a bumper. He contrasted that response to the other more serious incidents in which police do not respond to in as timely a manner. He described how two immigrant teenagers were allegedly assaulted in Fair Haven several weeks ago, and police officers took hours to respond. ULA held a protest about the event, and Acting Chief Renee Dominguez said that her department was investigating the incident.
“This is a department that is a complete joke,” Lugo told the Independent.
His frustration is evident in a Facebook Live video from Monday night’s incident.
Lugo can be seen sitting in the back of a police cruiser, cursing at the police and criticizing police priorities.
“They’re trying to arrest me because I touched another car, when there was no danger,” Lugo said in Spanish in that video. “I was going to go to the office and they insisted on arresting me. I don’t give a shit what they do to me.”
Soon thereafter, police officers move towards Lugo.
Lugo then goes limp, and four officers carry his body from the back of the cruiser to the back of a police transport vehicle.
Mayor's Take
In an email statement sent to the Independent Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Justin Elicker said that police are still reviewing the incident. He said he has called on police to release the body camera footage from the incident soon.
“Based on my initial review of the incident and body camera footage of the arresting officer, the call came in from a community member and the arresting officer was not aware of who Mr. Lugo was,” Elicker wrote. “The idea that our police officers would target someone based on their political activity or views is reprehensible and against the law. If any city employee took such action, we will hold that person accountable. There is no evidence that I have seen that the arrest was politically motivated. I know John and have admired his advocacy over the years. The incident was unfortunate, but people need to be treated equally and fairly throughout the legal process.
“While it appears the arresting officer was unaware of who Mr. Lugo was, a further investigation of the entire incident is merited. The Police Department will be doing an internal investigation into the incident for a more comprehensive review of what occurred and to ensure accountability as necessary.”
Acting Chief Renee Dominguez did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.
“A review of the incident found the arrest to be lawful and within policy, however we found behavior that warrants further investigation. Chief Dominguez has opened an Internal Affairs investigation,” stated a release from police spokesperson Officer Scott Shumway.
“Based on my initial review of the incident and body camera footage of the arresting officer, the call came in from a community member and the arresting officer was not aware of who Mr. Lugo was,” Elicker wrote. “
It doesn't matter who the hell Lugo is or is not. He should get due process, just like everyone else. The simple fact that Elicker should write this shows he is corrupt.