Sgt. Fired For Traffic Stop, Dishonesty

City police commissioners voted unanimously to fire Shayna Kendall after agreeing with the police chief and the Civilian Review Board that the now ex-sergeant lost her credibility as a cop after she allegedly lied about a traffic stop-turned-civilian complaint.

The Board of Police Commissioners took that vote Thursday night during a special meeting, which was held online via Zoom.

The only item on the agenda for the meeting was Police Chief Karl Jacobson’s recommendation that the commission terminate the employment of Kendall, a 13-year New Haven Police Department (NHPD) veteran who recently served as deputy commander of training.

Jacobson made that recommendation after an Internal Affairs (IA) investigation found that Kendall had violated a number of general orders — including by providing ​“untruthful and inaccurate responses” to IA investigators’ questions about her conduct during a July 7, 2021 traffic stop on Crescent Street. 

During that incident, Kendall allegedly pulled over a driver who had honked her horn at her, did not identify herself as a police officer, and told the driver that she was ​“detained” before letting her go. According to the IA investigation, Kendall initially told Sgt. Chris Fennessy that she was not on duty at the time, even though the incident took place after her shift that day had already begun. She also denied that she was on the phone at the time, though police later learned that she had been. And she said that she told her supervisor, Lt. Maturo, at the time that she was running late to work, though investigators later found that she had not and that Maturo was on vacation at the time.

“The New Haven Police Department is committed to transparency and building the trust of the community,” stated a Friday afternoon email press release from NHPD spokesperson Officer Scott Shumway. ​“This means holding our officers to a higher standard and demanding that they uphold our most important values of treating the community with respect and dignity and are always truthful.”

In that press release, Jacobson is quoted as saying: ​“If an officer acts in such a way as to undermine the public’s trust in our department, they will lose the privilege to serve New Haven. … It is unfortunate that these events took place and that I had to recommend the termination of a Sergeant from our department, but I am committed to the people of New Haven and to the procedural justice that I hope will build a better bond between our officers and the community.”

Reached for comment on Friday, Kendall’s lawyer, Eric Brown, said via email: ​“We are confident that when a fair and impartial tribunal has an opportunity to consider the evidence, Shayna will be vindicated. She has been a shooting star in the police department and we expect that she will continue to shine.”

Click here to read a redacted version of the full IA report on the incident that led to Kendall’s termination.. And see below for the Civilian Review Board’s (CRB) summary of the case, which concludes with its recommendation that Kendall face serious discipline, up to and including firing.

Kendall was inspired to join the NHPD after her brother Jason Craggett was murdered as he sat on his porch on Vernon Street in June 2004. She spoke frequently and publicly about how city detectives were available for her and her family at that time, and how their actions ultimately made her want to be a cop.

Click here, here, here, here, and here to read previous Independent stories about her background and her time in the NHPD.

Commissioner Lawlor: "You Must Be Truthful"

While nearly the entire three hour-plus commission meeting Thursday night took place behind closed doors in private executive session, Commissioner Mike Lawlor did address the seriousness of Kendall’s wrongdoing — and just how remorseful he felt about voting to fire someone he had such personal and professional admiration for — before all of the commissioners present voted to fire her.

“I hate to be in this position, because I’ve worked with Sgt. Kendall in the past, and I hold her in very high regard,” he said. ​“But my vote tonight is mainly based on the fundamental issue of the obligation of police officers to be truthful in any official proceeding, whether it’s a police report or an arrest warrant affidavit or a search warrant affidavit or an Internal Affairs interview where everyone is put on notice that they have an absolute legal obligation to make truthful statements in response to questions.”

Lawlor said that, if he and his fellow commissioners ​“were persuaded that the statements that were made were arguably truthful, I would have a very different vote tonight. But I think the message needs to be loud and clear to every police officer that, in your official capacity, you must be truthful and there will be no exceptions to this.”

“If you don’t know, you don’t know,” Lawlor concluded. ​“If you don’t remember, then you don’t remember. If you made a mistake and you own up to it … We all make mistakes. We all have bad days. But when you are asked questions about it, you must be truthful. And I hope hat message rings loudly and clearly to every sworn officer in our department and throughout the State of Connecticut.”

Mayor Justin Elicker agreed in comments he made later on Friday. ​“If one officer does something dishonest, it reflects all too often on everyone,” he said. He said that, in this case, Sgt. Kendall ​“did not follow proper procedures and then was not completely honest.”

CRB: "Police Should Not Lie"

Below is the full report issued by the CRB after reviewing Kendall’s IA case. The Independent has redacted the narrative to remove the name of the civilian complainant.

This complaint came from [redacted] about an incident involving Sgt. Shayna Kendall on July 7, 2021. [Redacted] said she was driving on Crescent Drive to work shortly after 7 a.m. that day and came to a stop at a red-light behind a Silver SUV. When the light changed, the SUV didn’t move forward. She noticed that the person driving the vehicle seemed to be talking on their phone, so she tapped her horn. The SUV then moved. [Redacted] made a left turn onto Ella T. Grasso Blvd, but she noticed that the SUV had made a U‑turn and had followed her.

Then the SUV turned on warning lights and [redacted] pulled her car off the road. The SUV pulled up alongside. Because there were no police markings on the vehicle, [redacted] was afraid the driver might have road rage, and she ducked down in her seat to avoid being shot.

It turned out, however, that the driver was Sgt. Kendall. She powered down her window, and confronted [redacted], and she said she was a cop, but she didn’t identify herself. and asked [redacted] if she knew that she was beeping at a cop and asked her what was her hurry and told her she was ​“detained.” After a short conversation, however, during which [redacted] apologized, Sgt Kendall told [redacted] she could leave. [Redacted] wrote: I was very upset at a police officer exhibiting road rage and abusing her power. I was harassed and detained.”

At IA, Sgt. Chris Hennessy investigated the case. He found that Sgt. Kendall did not report the traffic stop to dispatch or file a report on it, as is required. She should have identified herself, also. When he first interviewed Sgt. Kendall said she was not on duty when the incident occurred, though her shift began at 7 that day and this was after 7. She said she didn’t report the incident because she was not on duty. She told him she was running late for work and had informed her supervisor, Lt Maturo, the commander of the training academy, where she worked. (She was driving her take-home police vehicle; she was not in uniform) She denied she was talking on the phone. She said she pulled [redacted] over because she had made a sudden move in their vehicle when she turned onto Grasso Blvd and she was concerned and wanted to see if the driver was alright.

Through the investigation, Fennessy found that Sgt. Kendall had not informed Maturo she was running late. In fact, he was on vacation. He found that Kendall was talking on the phone at the time of the incident. The call, which lasted 120 minutes, was with Officer Karyn Hoffman, and, since Kendall didn’t hang up the phone during the incident, Hoffman could hear the interaction with [redacted].

During a second, ​“discrepancy” interview with Sgt. Kendall, when confronted with the fact, Sgt. Kendall persisted in claiming that she had communicated about her delay in getting to work with Lt. Maturo. During this meeting, which involved Sgt Fennessy and Lt. Colon, she said IA ​“has been a vice to create barriers and prohibitions for advancement for people of color.”

Fennessy concluded that she had violated numerous general orders: conduct unbecoming an officer, truthful in all matters, no false reports or records of information, limits on the scope of police powers, exceeded her authority in the enforcement of the law, knowingly violating the constitutional rights of any person, must be trustworthy, turn on body camera when on duty and engage with civilians in a law enforcement capacity, required to report traffic stops.

He wrote: ​“Based on the untruthful and inaccurate responses given by Sgt. Kendall during the investigation, and also based on her documented history of being deceitful and falsifying a document as a sworn police recruit at POSTC, and based on [redacted] not having any known issues that would call into question [redacted]‘s integrity, the complaint is sustained.”

He told me that not telling the truth is a very serious matter in the PD because an officer who has been shown to lie is not allowed to take the witness stand in trials, which, essentially, prevents them from doing their job as a police officer. He said that Kendall was found to have lied to officials that the POSTC academy when she was a recruit and was kicked out of the academy, though she was later allowed to get her training in New Haven and become an officer Though, as Sgt. Kendall said during the interviews, this may seem ​“insignificant,” it’s not. She pulled someone over in a traffic stop, apparently just to intimidate the person, she failed to report the action, she apparently lied about being in touch with her supervisor concerning her lateness, she was supposed to be at work but wasn’t, she apparently lied about some of the details of the incident. She has ruined her credibility on the witness stand and therefore has greatly diminished her ability to serve as a police officer.

We concur with the conclusions of the Internal Affairs investigation, with a recommendation. We believe that Sgt. Kendall should receive significant discipline. We believe that police should not lie, and, when they do, they should face significant punishment, up to and including a multiple-day suspension, demotion or even firing. If she remains on the PD, she should be retrained and should make a public apology to the complainant, to signal that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. This is especially important because she is the deputy at the police academy. She should set a good example. We also think the police leadership should reiterate that they don’t tolerate lying, and should intercede early in an officer’s career if they’re concerned about credibility.