Return To The Scene Of The Infraction

Six years ago, nearly to the day, New Haven cop Betsy Segui arrested artist and Ideat Village festival co-founder Bill Saunders at Pitkin Plaza on charges of interfering with a police officer, disorderly conduct, and inciting a riot.

On Wednesday, they both returned to the scene of that arrest — along with jurors who will decide whether Segui was wrong to arrest Saunders that day, violated his First Amendment rights, and used excessive force.

Their return to Pitkin Plaza was a field trip for the eight jurors, two of which are alternates, who will decide whether to award any money to Saunders for what he endured because of his arrest on June 30, 2012.

The trip was part of the first day’s proceedings in the civil case Saunders filed, which is being heard before Superior Court Judge Glen Pierson.

Pitkin Plaza, a public square off Orange Street in the shadow of the 360 State St. apartment tower, is in some ways different on Wednesday from six years ago. The Irish pub, O’Toole’s is now an Irish restaurant and bar called Trinity that is in the process of rebuilding after a fire destroyed it last September. Devil’s Gear Bike Shop has moved its storefront around the corner to Orange. Bru Café is now G Cafe.

And instead of a plaza full of festival goers listening to New Haven punk and rock and roll bands as a grassroots alternative to the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which ironically is in its last week, jurors found curious people enjoying a late afternoon coffee or a smoke break wondering at the court marshals milling about.

The judge ordered the field trip to give the jurors a sense of the setting of the arrest that they got to hear so much about in court from six people who were called to testify in support of Saunders’ case, The jurors also heard in court from Saunders, who was the last to testify for the day. Saunders will face a cross-examination on Thursday morning. Segui, who sat silently in court for much of the day Wednesday, only conferring with attorney, city Assistant Corporation Counsel Wolak, will be allowed to tell jurors her version of events on Thursday.

No one was allowed to talk to the jurors other than Judge Pierson, who also ventured into the field along with the attorneys for Saunders and Segui. Young boys popped wheelies on the sidewalk, at one point gliding past Pierson and the marshals on their back tires, front tires pointed to the sky, unaware that a court proceeding was indeed in session.

Groucho Speaks

What jurors heard from witnesses Wednesday mirrored what Saunders alleged in the lawsuit he first filed June 29, 2015. Saunders had a permit for the Ideat Village festival that started June 16, 2012 and was to last until June 30, 2012. That was to be the last of the Ideat Village, not because of Saunders’ arrest but because Saunders and Shea had other projects they wanted to pursue.

New Haven police Officers Segui (who’s now a sergeant) and Matthew Marcinczyk arrived at the scene that day six years ago and either asked or demanded to see Saunders’ permit. A permit had indeed been issued. But Saunders didn’t have it on him. So he left the plaza to get it from festival co-founder Nancy Shea. He couldn’t find Shea and returned empty handed.

Segui allegedly told Saunders that he’d have to produce the permit or the festival would be shut down. Saunders testified Wednesday that he got on the mic and announced the police were there seeking to see the permit, and they were in the process of bringing it to the scene.

What he said next seemed to turn up the heat that day.

Most of the witnesses couldn’t recall verbatim what Saunders said when he took the mic. They did testify that Saunders was not intoxicated. Some witnesses testified that things seemed calm between Saunders and the police. Others, including Saunders, testified that Sequi was aggressive. Saunders recalled on the stand that he got on the mic and told festival goers that the officers would have to be patient, enjoy some punk and rock and roll until Nancy Shea returned with the permit.

“And I then said in what I thought was a Groucho Marx-esque voice, ​‘And if the police have a problem with that, they will have to arrest a lot of people,’” Saunders said.

{media_6]The next thing he and his witnesses knew, Saunders was on the ground, and both officers were on top of him and wrestling him into handcuffs. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested and headed to 1 Union Ave. He ultimately had to cough up $2,800 in bail money that he said he never got back to get out of jail the same night.

Bloodied and bruised from the takedown, he made it back to Pitkin Plaza, where the party had in fact gone on despite the missing permit, in time for a closing event that was being held around the corner on 116 Court St.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of the matter for Saunders. He testified that he had to hire attorneys to fight the criminal case, spending another $2,800. From October 2012, when he first had to appear in court, to February 2014, when he pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of creating a public disturbance, he was on a 24-hour notice to be ready for trial.

The public disturbance charge is considered an infraction, the equivalent of a parking ticket, testified Assistant State’s Attorney Lisa D’Angelo. Saunders made a $300 donation to a victim’s fund. The charge doesn’t appear on his record.

On June 29, 2015, Saunders filed a lawsuit against Segui and Marcinczyk, alleging that the two officers unlawfully arrested him, battered him, and violated his state constitutional rights to free speech and assembly and protection from unreasonable search or seizure.

After years of objections, continuances, and amendments, and eventually a mistrial this past April, Saunders’ lawyer, Chris DeMarco, submitted a second amended complaint on June 14 that limited the charges to false arrest and battery, and directed them solely at now Sgt. Segui. Officer Marcinczyk was left out of the June 2018 amended lawsuit because he resigned from the New Haven police force in March 2015, several months before Saunders filed his initial lawsuit.

In the June 2018 complaint, DeMarco described how Saunders and Nancy Shea organized the Ideat Village annual arts festival back in 2002. The festival served as Saunders’ and Shea’s protest counter-programming to the annual International Festival of Arts and Ideas.

On April 9, 2012, Saunders obtained the requisite city permit to put on the 12th and final Ideat Village festival in Pitkin Plaza on Orange Street from June 16 to June 30, 2012. The permit designated Nancy Shea as the ​“official contact” for the event, according to the complaint.

On June 30, 2012, during the final two hours of the festival, then Officer Segui ​“demanded” that Saunders produce his permit for the use of Pitkin Plaza. According to the complaint, Saunders told her that Shea had the permit, that he tried to find Shea, and that he ​“returned in a short time” to let Segui know that he couldn’t find her.

“Defendant Segui then told the Plaintiff, ​‘We’re going to shut you down,’” according to the complaint. DeMarco wrote that Saunders stepped toward Segui to discuss the matter, but was told that he would be arrested if he stepped any closer. The complaint says that Saunders began to walk away and that Segui threatened to arrest him if he continued to walk away.

According to the complaint, Saunders saw no reason why he should be arrested, shrugged, and continued to walk away to look for Shea.

In addition to the allegation of unlawful arrest, DeMarco’s complaint also alleges Segui tackled and arrested Saunders, leading to an injury of Saunders’ right arm and cuts and abrasion to his head.

Saunders is seeking money damages and ​“such other and further relief as the Court may deem appropriate” from Segui, according to the complaint.

In a June 15 response, Segui’s lawyer, city Assistant Corporation Counsel Michael Wolak, denied any wrongdoing on the police officer’s behalf. He wrote that Segui ​“asked,” not ​“demanded,” that Saunders produce the festival permit.

Wolak wrote that though Segui ​“intended to take the plaintiff to the ground, before this could happen, the plaintiff by his own actions caused himself, the defendant and the other officer [Marcinczyk] to fall to the ground.”

“If the plaintiff sustained the injuries and damages alleged,” Wolak continued, ​“said injuries and damages were proximately caused by his own negligence” or because he refused to obey lawful commands from a police officer and then used physical force to resist arrest.

Wolak further wrote that Segui used a justifiable level of physical force to affect Saunders’s arrest.

Thomas Breen contributed to this report.