Thomas MacMillan Photo
When Joe Gr8 kicks his next rhyme, he could rap about the time the police broke his nose and he sat for four hours in lock-up with Taser prongs stuck in his rear.
That’s what Joe Becton, whose MC name is Joe Gr8, said happened on June 2.
The Norwich-based rapper (pictured) said he was meeting up with his cousin in New Haven to work on his mix tape when police tased him, arrested him, and crushed his nose. Later, at the police station, Becton found taser prongs still stuck in his body. It took four hours before guards removed them, he said.
Police told a different story about what happened in a parking lot on Woodward Avenue on the evening of June 2. After he was found in a “suspicious” vehicle, Becton assaulted officers, then ran away and tried to conceal evidence, according to a police report. Police said they found a blunt in his car and bag of pot he was trying to hide.
Becton, who’s 26, was arrested for trespassing, drug possession, and interfering with police. He’s due in court on June 24 to answer to those charges.
In an interview this week in the office of his attorney, civil rights lawyer Mike Jefferson, Becton gave his side of the story. Jefferson said Becton’s is one of several cases he’s received lately in which New Haven police have overreacted during routine stops of African-Americans.
Here’s what happened on June 2, according to Becton:
“I was coming from Norwich,” Becton said. He travels to New Haven nearly every week to visit his cousin at his condominium in a complex at 24 Woodward Ave. in the Morris Cove neighborhood. He and his cousin are working on Becton’s mixtape, which will showcase his rapping.
Becton pulled up to the complex, parking in his usual visitor spot, and waited for his cousin to get home. He was eating a burrito that he’d picked up on the way to New Haven and listening to the instrumental track that he was planning to rap over.
He was parked for less than ten minutes when a police car pulled up and an officer appeared at his window.
“What are you doing here?” Becton recalled the officer asking. “You don’t belong here. You’re trespassing.”
Becton told the cop he was waiting for his cousin. He told him which unit his cousin lives in. “I come here every week,” he said.
He asked the officer if he wanted to see his ID. The officer said no. Becton said he repeatedly offered to show ID and was rebuffed.
The officer ordered Becton out of the car and started asking him where the drugs and guns were.
“I’m complying the whole time,” Becton recalled.
Three other police cars showed up. A plainclothes officer took over and began trying to antagonize Becton, he said. Becton said he started to get nervous, because the police didn’t seem to want his ID. What did they want? he wondered. He was in a secluded spot; he worried the police might be able to abuse him without being seen.
Becton works on surveillance for the Foxwoods casino. He said he knows the importance of being where cameras can see you. “I thought they were going to beat my ass,” he said.
Becton said he just answered questions. “I’m a good kid,” he told the cops. “I’ve never had a record or anything.”
The state judicial website has no convictions listed for Joseph Becton.
Becton had his hands on the car. He felt hands on him and a pain in his lower back or rear end. “I did a shake” when he felt that, he said. All of a sudden, the police were all over him. He saw an opening and bolted.
Becton said he was just trying to get to a less secluded area, where more people might be watching. He said he ran only a few yards, then stopped. He was struck twice in the neck by Tasers and fell to the ground. The plainclothes cop jumped on him and started kneeing him in the face, saying “I hate drug dealers,” Becton said. After three blows, Becton felt a pop. The cop kept going for four more strikes to his face, until Becton pleaded for him to stop.
At this point, Becton was going in and out of consciousness. Police put him in the back of a cruiser and called an ambulance. Upon seeing his face, the EMT said, according to Becton, “Oh my god, did you get in a fight?”
“He slipped and fell,” replied the plainclothes officer, according to Becton.
Becton was later transferred to a wagon. He said that while he was sitting by the door, he heard an officer say, “Let’s say this kid threw something in the woods.”
“I didn’t see the kid throw anything in the woods,” another officer allegedly replied.
At the police station, Becton noticed a funny feeling in his rear. He tried to pull down his shorts, but they were stuck. He twisted around and saw Taser prongs stuck through his shorts into his behind. He called the guard and tried to get help. It was four hours before a group of officers eventually removed the prongs, he said.
Becton said he must have been tased in his rear when he was standing with his hands on his car. In that case, the tasing was completely unprovoked, he said.
Becton admitted that he had some pot. “Yes I had some in the car,” he said.
Nevertheless, he said he thinks the police response was over the top. He visited Yale-New Haven Hospital after he got out of jail and was told his nose had been broken.
One of the officers involved, Dennis O’Connell, has been accused of police brutality in the past. That case is still open in federal court.
“I was complying the whole time,” said Becton, describing the events of June 2.
That’s his version. Here’s the official police version, according to a report prepared by Officer Roy Davis:
Davis was dispatched to 24 Woodward Ave. on a report that a suspicious vehicle had been parked in the lot for half an hour. Davis found a silver Dodge Intrepid with tinted windows parked in the last spot on the left parking lot. Through the windshield, he saw Becton in the driver’s seat with his hands in his lap. As he approached the driver’s side window, he saw Becton trying to push something down between the seat and the door. Becton was “frantically pushing money onto the floor from his lap.”
Davis asked Becton what he was doing. Becton was unable to give the number of his cousin’s apartment.
Davis asked Becton for his insurance and registration. Becton said his license was in the back and began again reaching between the seat and the door. Davis saw him pushing “a green plant like substance” under his seat. Davis opened the door and asked Becton to step out.
Becton stepped out. When Davis asked him to put his hands on the car, Becton grabbed the pocket of his shorts. Davis grabbed his arm. Becton turned and allegedly pushed him and then tried to grab him. As Officer O’Connell and Sgt. Dennis Burgh arrived, Becton had begun punching Davis. O’Connell and Burgh pulled Becton off Davis. Becton allegedly punched O’Connell in the crotch and started running toward Fort Nathan Hale Park.
Davis chased after Becton, ordering him to stop. Becton, still running, reached into his shorts and began to turn back toward Davis. Davis pulled out his Taser X‑26 and deployed two prongs into Becton’s back. Becton fell, but then started to get up. He refused to drop what he had in his hands. Davis tased him again.
O’Connell and Burgh arrived and grappled with Becton. O’Connell tased him. Finally, they got him cuffed and lifted him off the ground, revealing a baggy of marijuana underneath him.
An EMT arrived and removed the Taser prongs and treated Becton’s injuries.
Davis found $13 on the floor of Becton’s car and a blunt between the driver’s seat and the door.
Officers Davis and O’Connell reported they suffered back injuries during their struggles with Becton.
On Tuesday, the supervisor at police lock-up said she couldn’t comment on Becton’s allegations about Taser prongs in his rear for several hours. Her boss was not available for comment by press time.
Contacted by phone, Morris Cove top cop Lt. Jeff Hoffman said, “As much as I’d like to comment, I can’t comment on any pending litigation.”
“The police are abusing their power,” argued attorney Jefferson (pictured). “I think they feel quite comfortable doing it.”
Jefferson cited a number of recent cases that have been referred to his office. All of them involve African-American men and women who say police have been antagonistic, cursed at them, and been excessively aggressive. In each case, routine interactions have turned into angry and sometimes violent incidents. Such behavior has been going on for years, said Jefferson.
“These things start at the top,” he said. “The police are not held accountable.”
Police reports in some of the instances claim, as in the Becton case, that the defendants interfered with their ability to do their job and provoked confrontations.
“We all know police embellish and flat-out lie,” Jefferson responded.
Your kidding me? Who would believe this guys story? ...