Maya McFadden file photo
Shayna Kendall, now reinstated with NHPD.
A police sergeant who was fired for allegedly lying about a traffic stop-turned-civilian complaint has now been reinstated with the New Haven Police Department — which she is also suing in federal court for racial and gender discrimination.
That’s the latest with Shayna Kendall, a New Haven native who rose the ranks within the NHPD to become the department’s spokesperson and a sergeant. She was fired in August 2022 following an Internal Affairs investigation that led the city’s police chief and police commission to determine that she had lost her credibility as a cop.
In November 2023, a two-person majority of a three-person state arbitration panel overturned Kendall’s termination. That panel ordered that Kendall be reinstated in her city police job, that her discipline should be reduced to a one-day suspension, and that she should be “made whole” for lost wages and benefits resulting from her termination.
According to the city’s most recent weekly personnel report, Kendall was reinstated as a police sergeant effective April 28, at a salary of $51,540. Her job position in the personnel report is listed as “tbd.”
“Pursuant to the arbitration award, Shayna has been reinstated and is undergoing training and recertification classes,” city police union attorney Marshall Segar told the Independent. “As there is corresponding and pending legal action in Federal Court, the Union will refrain from any further comment at this time.”
That ongoing lawsuit referenced by Segar was first filed by Kendall in state court in November 2024, a year after the state arbitration panel overturned her termination. The case was subsequently moved to federal court.
That lawsuit alleges that the City of New Haven, Police Chief Karl Jacobson, and Asst. Police Chiefs David Zannelli and Manmeet Bhagtana violated state and federal anti-discrimination statutes, among other alleged wrongdoings, through its investigation and ultimate termination of Kendall’s police employment.
“The Plaintiff has alleged that she was terminated even though other ‘white’ and ‘male’ police officers who had committed similar or more severe offenses were not terminated or even recommended for termination,” reads a March 3 memo filed by Kendall’s attorney in opposition to the city’s motion to dismiss the case.
That same March 3 court filing states that the city “continued to refuse to reinstate the Plaintiff” after the November 2023 arbitration award. Instead, the city sought sought to vacate the arbitration award in state court. A state judge sided with Kendall and against the city in November 2024, upholding the arbitration award. The city also sought to have Kendall’s certification as a police officer in Connecticut revoked. “The Plaintiff alleged that these actions were pursued because of her race and gender,” Kendall’s March 3 federal court memo reads.
Meanwhile, in a Jan. 13 motion to dismiss, city-hired lawyers laid out the city’s legal case for why Kendall’s anti-discrimination lawsuit should be thrown out. That motion reads in part that several of Kendall’s claims should be dismissed because “Plaintiff fails to allege any specific facts which demonstrate she was discriminated against based on race or gender or that any Defendant acted with animus.”
A settlement conference in this ongoing federal court case is scheduled to take place on Tuesday at 3 p.m. via Zoom.