Global Courant
Two more Connecticut police officers were fired on Wednesday for what officials called their misconduct and lack of compassion in the way they treated Richard “Randy” Cox after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van last year.
The New Haven Police Commissioners voted 5-0 to allow Officer Oscar Diaz, the van driver, and Sgt. Betsy Segui, the detention area supervisor, on the recommendation of Chief Karl Jacobson.
Of the five officers facing criminal charges, commissioners have now fired four following an internal affairs investigation. The fifth officer, Ronald Pressley, evaded department disciplinary procedures by retiring in January.
“I hope that these decisions … now that this is done, we can now start healing as a police department and as a community,” said Evelise Ribeiro, president of the commissioners. “Mr. Cox’s treatment was appalling and is not the way we would want our officers to treat our citizens in the city of New Haven. And this behavior will not be tolerated in this department.”
2 CONNECTICUT POLICE OFFICERS DISCARD FOR REckless ACTIONS AGAINST A MAN WHO WAS PARALYZED BEHIND THE POLICE BUS
Ribeiro also apologized to Cox and his family,
Lawyers for the four fired officers said they plan to challenge the terminations in arbitration proceedings, under rules set out in the police contract.
“Unfortunately, these four police officers ended up in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in the wrong political arena,” said Jeffrey Ment, a lawyer for Diaz and Segui.
Cox, 37, injured his neck on June 19, 2022, when Diaz braked the van hard to avoid a collision with another vehicle that had sped out of a side street, according to police and videos of the events. Cox’s hands were cuffed behind his back and there were no seat belts, and he flew headfirst into the metal partition between the driver’s and prisoner’s areas.
“I can’t move. I’m about to die. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said, according to the police video. He had been arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, charges later dismissed.
New Haven Police Department body camera footage shows Richard “Randy” Cox, center, being pulled from a police van and placed in a wheelchair after being detained by New Haven Police Department on June 19, 2022. (New Haven Police Department via AP, File)
At the police station, authorities said officers recklessly dragged Cox out of the van and around the police station, mocking him for not being able to move and accusing him of faking and being drunk.
Cox’s case outraged the community, including local NAACP officials. Ben Crump, one of Cox’s lawyers, compared it to what happened to Freddie Gray, a black man who died in Baltimore in 2015 after suffering a spinal cord injury while handcuffed and handcuffed in a city police van. Cox is black and all five officers arrested are black or Hispanic.
Messages requesting comment were left for Crump and Cox’s mother on Wednesday night.
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As Cox begged for help in the back of the van, Diaz drove for more than three minutes before stopping to check on him after repeatedly hearing Cox say he couldn’t move and thought he had broken his neck, according to the Internal Affairs. research report.
Diaz told Cox that he called an ambulance, asking them to meet him at the police station. Diaz then drove Cox to the station. Jacobson has said this was a violation of department rules, as Diaz should have been waiting for the paramedics when he stopped.
At the precinct, Officer Jocelyn Lavandier dragged Cox by his feet to the back of the van, and Diaz and Pressley grabbed his shirt as he fell to the floor.
When Cox told them he thought he had broken his neck, Segui replied, “You’re not cracking anything. You just drank too much,” the report said.
Cox was then placed in a wheelchair, with his neck and body leaning to one side. Officers later removed him from the wheelchair, placed him on the floor of a cell and handcuffed him. The ambulance arrived minutes later and took Cox to a hospital. He remained paralyzed from the chest down.
The five officers were charged with misconduct – cruelty and reckless endangerment. All pleaded not guilty and their cases remain pending.
Cox sued the city, which recently agreed to a $45 million settlement.
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After Cox was injured, the city police announced reforms, including making sure all inmates wear seatbelts. The state senate earlier this month gave final legislative approval to a bill spurred by the Cox case that would require seat belts for all prisoners being transported.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker called the firings “important and necessary steps to hold accountable for the mistreatment of Randy Cox.”
“While nothing can ever return Randy’s life to the way it was prior to this incident…we as a community have clearly and unequivocally demonstrated that Randy’s life matters, that Black Lives Matter and that we are committed to doing all we can It is in our power to ensure that an incident like this never happens again,” he said in a statement.
