by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
None of the city cops who were arrested more than three years ago after Richard “Randy” Cox sustained paralyzing injuries while in police custody will serve any time in prison, after a state judge dismissed the remaining criminal charges against three current and former officers.
State Superior Court Judge David Zagaja handed down that decision Friday during pre-trial hearings in the now-concluded criminal cases of Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier, and Luis Rivera.
Hearst Connecticut’s Lisa Backus first reported on the judge’s ruling here.
Diaz, Lavandier, and Rivera — along with former Sgt. Betsy Segui and former Officer Ronald Pressley — had each been arrested in November 2022 on misdemeanor charges of second-degree reckless endangerment and “cruelty to persons” because of how they handled Cox’s transport and detention on June 19, 2022.
While Segui and Pressley struck plea deals with the state last November that saw them pay $15 apiece and avoid prison time, Diaz, Lavandier, and Rivera chose instead to take their respective cases to trial.
Those trials will now never take place, thanks to Zagaja’s decision to dismiss the charges and grant the defendants’ requests for accelerated rehabilitation.
“What happened to Randy was tragic and wrong,” Mayor Justin Elicker told the Independent in a statement on Saturday.
“We disagree with the court’s decision and also shared with [the] state’s attorney’s office that we disagreed with the officers getting accelerated rehabilitation, but we will respect the court’s decision.”
He also said that, “[s]ince this tragic incident, the New Haven Police Department has instituted a comprehensive set of reforms and updated its policies and procedures so something like this never happens again.”
Segui, Diaz, Lavandier, and Rivera were also all fired by the police commission in June 2023; Pressley retired before the commission could hear the chief’s recommendation that he be fired. (Diaz subsequently got his local police job back after state arbitrators overturned his termination. Segui, meanwhile, lost in arbitration and failed to get reinstated with the department.)
Attorney Dan Ford, who represented Lavandier in her criminal court case, told the Independent on Saturday that his client is “happy” with the judge’s decision to grant her accelerated rehabilitation and dismiss her criminal charges.
“I don’t believe the state had sufficient evidence” to prove that his client was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, he said. “We were prepared to go to trial” to clear her name.
Ford said that the past three years “have been very trying and difficult” for Lavandier. “She was able to find some work temporarily,” and is now “actively try[ing] to get back on the [New Haven police] force” and get her old job back. He said that she currently has a grievance pending against the department in regards to her termination.
In a separate statement provided to the Independent Saturday, Attorney Raymond Hassett, who represented Rivera in his criminal court case, said, “The Judge’s decision to dismiss the charges against the officers was firmly grounded in the law and the undisputed facts of the case. Under Connecticut law, courts have the authority to dismiss criminal charges when there is insufficient evidence or cause to justify continuing the prosecution or placing the accused on trial. In this case, the Judge carefully considered the legal standards, the absence of sufficient evidence, and the lack of any objection from the victim, Randy Cox. This decision reflects not only a commitment to justice for all parties involved but also an acknowledgment of the broader context, including the officers themselves, who have been unfairly left as scapegoats. It was a just and principled decision by a jurist who recognized the importance of fairness and equity in the administration of justice.”
Hassett added that Rivera has “consistently maintained his innocence throughout the 1335-day process” since he was first arrested in November 2022. In regards to his client’s actions that night of June 19, 2022, Hassett wrote, “Officer Rivera acted in good faith based on the information available to him at the time, believing Mr. Cox’s condition resulted from his intoxication rather than an unknown prior motor vehicle accident. Mr. Rivera maintained he treated Mr. Cox with compassion[] and humanely, as evident in video recordings of his involvement.”
Click here to read Rivera’s and Hassett’s statement in full.
To resolve a separate civil lawsuit brought by Cox and his family, the city agreed in June 2023 to pay $45 million — $30 million of which was covered by the city’s insurance, and the remainder paid from city coffers.
All of this comes nearly four years after police arrested Cox, who was then 36 years old, on weapons charges at a Lilac Street block party on June 19, 2022. Cox was brought to the police detention center at 1 Union Ave. after having suffered a debilitating injury in a police transport van driven by Diaz. Instead of taking seriously Cox’s protestations that he was severely hurt and needed immediate medical attention, Segui, the supervisor at the detention center that night, and other officers thought he was faking because he was drunk. They dragged him out of the van, booked him in a wheelchair, and then dragged him into a cell. The case sparked national outrage.