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Ofc. Diaz, Sgt. Segui, and Ofc. Pressley lifting Cox into wheelchair on June 19, 2022.
Police commissioners voted to fire Sgt. Betsy Segui and Officer Oscar Diaz Wednesday night, making them the third and fourth New Haven cops to lose their jobs for their roles in the mishandling of Richard “Randy” Cox, a now-37-year-old Black New Havener who suffered paralyzing injuries while in police custody.
During a special online meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, all five commissioners present voted to follow Police Chief Karl Jacobson’s recommendations and terminate Segui’s and Diaz’s employment with the New Haven Police Department.
They voted to fire Segui and Diaz for their roles in the June 19, 2022, incident that left Cox paralyzed from the shoulders down thanks to injuries he suffered while in police custody. Those injuries occurred during and after his transportation in a seat-beltless police van to police lock-up at 1 Union Ave. (See more below.)
Segui and Diaz aren’t the only New Haven police officers to be fired for their roles in Cox’s case.
Wednesday’s termination votes follow the police commission’s firings of Officers Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera earlier this month for their own conduct during that same incident.
The votes also come nearly three weeks after the Elicker administration reached a $45 million settlement in federal court with Cox, his family, and his attorneys — including crusading national civil rights lawyer Ben Crump — to resolve a lawsuit alleging that the city and the involved officers had violated Cox’s civil rights.
All the while, criminal cases against Segui, Diaz, Lavandier, Rivera, and now-retired ex-city police officer 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.
During Internal Affairs (IA) interviews in the runup to their police commission disciplinary hearings, the four now-fired officers sought to justify their treatment of Cox by telling investigators they thought he was drunk, intentionally noncompliant, or otherwise faking his injuries after his arrest.
"This Behavior Will Not Be Tolerated"
Wednesday's online police commission meeting.
While Wednesday’s police commission meeting lasted around an hour and 40 minutes, all but the very beginning of the meeting and the final 5 minutes took place in private executive session as the commissioners considered the chief’s case for firing Segui. (The commissioners had heard Diaz’s case at a prior meeting.)
At 7:32 p.m., the commissioners came out of executive session and back into public view.
As roughly 60 police officers, reporters, and members of the public watched on, the commissioners promptly moved, seconded, and voted unanimously to fire Diaz, and then Segui.
The only commissioner to speak publicly during the meeting after the votes was Commission Chair Evelise Ribiero.
“I hope that these decisions over the last month and a half and tonight, with this being concluded, we can now start to heal as a police department and a community,” Ribeiro said.
“The behavior of these officers [is] not indicative of what this police department is about … The treatment of Mr. Cox was appalling. … This behavior will not be tolerated.”
Ribeiro concluded by formally apologizing to Cox and his family. “We hope that he will continue to heal,” she said.
Soon thereafter, the commissioners moved to adjourn, and by 7:36 p.m., the meeting had concluded.
In an email press release sent out at 7:53 p.m. Wednesday, Mayor Justin Elicker described the police commission’s votes as “important and necessary steps towards ensuring accountability for the mistreatment of Randy Cox while he was in [these officers’] custody and care.”
The mayor continued: “From day one, we promised accountability, transparency and action. While nothing can ever return Randy’s life to the way it was prior to this incident, with the police disciplinary process now complete, the civil lawsuit now resolved and the comprehensive set of reforms now adopted by the police department, we have demonstrated clearly and unequivocally as a community that Randy’s life matters, that Black Lives Matter and that we are resolved to do everything in our power to ensure an incident like this never happens again.
“This has not been an easy process, but it has been a necessary one – and we are now a stronger city than we were before because of the conversation we’ve had and the actions we’ve taken as a community.
“I want to thank Randy and his family for their patience as we worked through this difficult process together.”
Asked for comment for this story, city police union President Florencio Cotto said, “Elm City Local intends to have these terminations decided by an independent arbitrator rather than encourage further pillorying of these dedicated officers in the media.”
One Year Later
Key moments of the police arrest, transport, and detention of Richard Cox.
The police officer firings come roughly a year 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 has now been settled for $45 million.
The incident led the city to update its training and police transport policies, requiring that officers ask arrestees if they need medical attention, seek care immediately if the answer is yes, and transport arrestees in police cruisers with seatbelts, among other changes.
With an unsecured human being riding as cargo in the back of his police van, Oscar Diaz could have prevented this tragedy by simply adhering to the City speed limit.
Criminally negligent?
If it wasn't the proverbial "rough ride", I'd still like to know what was Diaz' hurry? It cost Cox his ability to ever walk again, and it cost the rest of us $340 each.