A former Connecticut police officer is accused of abusing prisoners Richard “Randy” Cox After being paralyzed in the back of a police car, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor on Wednesday and received no jail time, while three other officers chose to take their cases to trial.
Betsy Segui, a former New Haven sergeant who oversaw detention at the city police station, pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment in exchange for a 60-day suspended jail sentence. Another former officer, Ronald Presley, took the same plea deal and received a similar sentence last week.
Cox, 39, did not attend the Superior Court hearing in New Haven. He was paralyzed from the chest down On June 19, 2022, when the police car he was riding in without a seat belt braked hard, causing him to fall head first into a metal barrier while his hands were handcuffed behind his back. He was arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, a charge that was later dropped.
“I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, help me,” Cox said in the truck minutes after the crash, according to police video. It later became clear that he had broken his neck.
Once at the police station, officers taunted Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox out of the truck and around the police station before putting him in a cell before eventually taking him to hospital.
When Cox told officers he thought he had broken his neck, Segway responded: “You’re not breaking anything. I just drank too much,” The Verge reported. Internal affairs investigation report.
Segui did not address Cox’s treatment during the court hearing. She only answered the usual questions from the judge about her guilty plea.
Her lawyer, Gregory Cerritelli, said Sigi wanted to leave the criminal case behind her.
“She no longer works in law enforcement and has no desire to, so I think from her perspective this gives her closure and allows her to move on with her life and focus on her new career,” he said in an interview after the hearing. He refused to reveal Siggy’s new profession.
Three other officers involved in Cox’s transfer, Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier, and Luis Rivera, rejected plea deals proposed by prosecutors and chose to take their cases to trial. All three are charged with cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment.
Prosecutors said Cox was informed of Segui’s plea deal in advance and gave his consent. In the year 2023, the city of New Haven He agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Cox For 45 million dollars.
Cox’s attorney, Luis Rubano, said Cox and his family hoped the criminal cases would be concluded as quickly as possible with plea deals by the five officers.
“I believe that a conclusion to this tragic situation is what the family wants, and the fact that there will now likely be a trial for the other remaining officers forces Randy and his family to relive the events of that tragic day,” Rubano said.
Rubano said Cox bought a house and lives there with his mother, who cares for him with the help of medical professionals.
The case sparked outrage from civil rights advocates including the NAACP, along with comparisons to The Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Cox is black, while all five of the officers arrested are black or Hispanic. Gray, who was also black, died in 2015 after suffering a spinal injury while handcuffed and handcuffed in a Baltimore police cruiser.
The case also led to… Reforms to the New Haven Police Department In addition to statewide seat belt requirements for prisoners.
New Haven police fired Sigui, Diaz, Lavander, and Rivera for violating police conduct policies, while Presley retired. Diaz appealed his firing and got his job back. Diaz, who was driving the truck when Cox was hit, said he had to hit the brakes hard to avoid an accident with another vehicle.