Two New Haven police officers were fired on Wednesday for their involvement in the arrest of Randy Cox. Last June, Cox was paralyzed after he was left improperly restrained in the back of a police van.
The New Haven Police Commission voted to accept the recommendation of Police Chief Karl Jacobson and fire Officer Luis Rivera and Officer Jocelyn Lavandier. Four board members voted to terminate and two abstained.
Mayor Justin Elicker (D) said the officers deserved to be fired.
“The chief made his recommendation and I think that the police commission made the right decision to follow the chief's recommendation,” Elicker said.
Four of the five officers involved have been on administrative leave since the incident. The other retired in January. All five have pleaded not guilty to reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons.
Jacobson said he can support his officers through mistakes, but he draws the line when they treat community members poorly.
“I want to tell the police officers I support them,” Jacobson said. “But you can't treat the community without respect and dignity. And when someone says their neck is broken, you can't just drag them out of the van or drag them to a cell. And I think 99.9% of the police officers here would have stopped and not done that.”
Jacobson said the amount of hospital trips have increased since Cox was injured. During the incident, Cox had told officers that he was hurt and needed to go to the hospital, but he was ignored.
The chief also said that community complaints about policing have decreased since last June.
“I believe civilian internal affairs complaints are down like 30% this year as compared to last year,” Jacobson said. “That's good. I'm not saying that's because this happened. But I'm seeing that's happening. So that's good.”
The commission will vote on whether or not to fire the other two officers at a meeting on June 28.
The city is attempting to settle a civil lawsuit with the Cox family regarding the incident. Those proceedings are ongoing.
