New Haven, Conn. – Former Connecticut police officers who were arrested for their alleged mistreatment of a man who was left paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022 were denied the opportunity to have their criminal charges erased. The four former officers, Oscar Diaz, Betsy Segui, Ronald Pressley, and Luis Rivera, sought to enter a program that could have allowed them to avoid trial.
In New Haven Superior Court, a judge rejected their applications for accelerated rehabilitation, citing the seriousness of the victim’s injuries. Richard “Randy” Cox, the man who was paralyzed, opposed the officers’ participation in the program. Cox’s lawyer argued that the officers should have been charged with felonies and that their attempt to avoid a permanent record offended his client deeply.
Cox, who is now 38 years old, was left paralyzed from the chest down on June 19, 2022, after a police van in which he was riding braked hard to avoid a collision. His hands were cuffed behind his back and the van did not have seat belts. Cox had been arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, but those charges were later dismissed.
After the crash, officers who were at the scene reportedly mocked Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries. They dragged him from the van by his feet and placed him in a holding cell before transferring him to a hospital. Cox’s family believes that the officers may have worsened his injuries by moving him around.
The former officers were charged with misdemeanors of negligent cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment. Jocelyn Lavandier, another officer who faces the same charges, also applied for the probation program but was not present at the hearing. The officers’ defense attorneys argued that Cox’s injuries occurred before he arrived at the police station and that the officers were not aware of the extent of his injuries.
In the wake of Cox’s injuries, the city police announced reforms, including the requirement for all prisoners to wear seat belts. Additionally, the state Legislature passed a law that mandates seat belts for all prisoners being transported in Connecticut.
Four of the five officers involved in the incident were fired last year, while the fifth officer retired and avoided an internal affairs investigation. The city is appealing the decision to reinstate one officer who was previously fired. Cox filed a lawsuit against the city, which was settled for $45 million.
Cox did not attend the hearing due to the complications and pain associated with travel. The criminal cases against the former officers will now proceed to trial. Supporters of Cox, including his family and the NAACP, have criticized the prosecutors for not bringing felony charges against the officers. They have drawn comparisons to the case of Freddie Gray, a Black man who died in 2015 in Baltimore after suffering a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a police van. All five officers involved in Cox’s case are Black or Hispanic.