A Connecticut judge on Friday dismissed criminal charges against three current and former New Haven police officers accused of abusing prisoners. Richard “Randy” Cox After being paralyzed in the back of a police car in 2022.
Judge David Zagaga dismissed the cases against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting them a monitoring program that allowed the charges to be expunged from the defendants’ records, saying their conduct was not harmful. Two other officers, Betsy Segui and Ronald Presley, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and received no prison time.
Cox, 40, He was paralyzed from the chest down On June 19, 2022, when the police car, which did not have seat belts, slammed on the brakes to avoid a crash, 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 he was shot, according to police video. It later became clear that he had broken his neck.
Diaz, who was driving the truck, brought Cox to the police department, where officers taunted Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox from the van and around the police station before putting him in a cell before paramedics took him to hospital.
Before getting him out of the truck, Lavander asked Cox to move his leg and sit down, according to The Verge. Internal affairs investigation report. Cox says “I can’t move” and Lavander says “You’re not even trying.”
New Haven State’s Attorney John P. Doyle Jr.’s office said prosecutors and Cox did not object to dismissing the charges.
Defense attorneys said that while the officers were sympathetic to what happened to Cox, they did not cause or make his injury worse. The three officers whose cases were dismissed are scheduled to stand trial next month.
“We do not believe there is sufficient evidence to prove her guilt or any wrongdoing,” said Dan Ford, Lavander’s attorney. “This is a negotiated settlement that avoids the risk of the emotional toll of a trial.”
Rivera’s attorney, Raymond Hassett, called the decision to charge the officers “unfair and misplaced.”
“The police chief and mayor’s actions in targeting officers were a misguided attempt to distract attention from the Police Department’s shortcomings in running the department and ensuring proper protocols are in place and followed,” Hassett said in a statement.
Lawyers for Cox and Diaz did not immediately respond to phone and email messages Friday. Cox’s attorney, Luis Rubano, said Cox and his family hope the criminal cases will end quickly with plea deals.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said city officials disagreed with the judge’s decision to dismiss the charges.
“What happened to Randy was tragic and horrific,” he said in a statement.
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.
In the year 2023, the city of New Haven He agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Cox For 45 million dollars.
New Haven police fired Sigui, Diaz, Lavandiere, and Rivera for violating police conduct policies, while Presley retired and avoided an internal investigation. Diaz appealed his firing and got his job back. Siggy lost the appeal against her expulsion, while appeals from Lavander and Rivera remain pending.