Charge
That Brutality Complaints
Against Chief's Son Covered Up
By DAVE
ALTIMARI
The
Hartford Courant
5:31 PM
EDT, June 22, 2011
MERIDEN
Two
federal lawsuits were filed
Wednesday against Meriden Police
Officer Evan Cossette; his
father, Jeffry Cossette, who is
the police chief; and several
other officers alleging that
brutality charges against the
younger Cossette were covered up
or ignored by the department.
One of
the lawsuits filed in U.S.
District Court in New Haven was
by Pedro Temich, a prisoner who
was pushed backwards while
handcuffed by Evan Cossette into
a jail cell at the police
station last May. He fell and
cracked his head on a concrete
bench, an injury that eventually
required 12 stitches.
When
the video from the jail cell
camera was released, New Haven
State's Attorney Michael
Dearington and the FBI announced
a joint criminal investigation,
which is on-going.
Meriden
city officials also hired a
former prosecutor in the U.S.
Attorney's office to conduct an
independent investigation into
allegations raised by two
officers, Donald Huston and
Brian Sullivan, that Evan
Cossette was treated differently
when it came to excessive force
complaints because his father is
the police chief. That
investigation also is pending.
An
internal affairs investigation
of the jail cell incident didn't
start until more than six weeks
later because none of the
supervisors on duty reported it.
During his internal affairs
interview, Evan Cossette said
that he feared the 5-foot Temich,
whose hands were cuffed behind
his back, was going to head butt
him.
WFSB Video
Cossette said that because
Temich was so drunk, he tripped
himself and cracked his head.
The videotape shows Evan
Cossette entering the jail cell
six or seven times and moving
Temich around despite the fact
he had an obvious head injury
with blood visible on the cell
floor.
New
Britain attorney Sally Roberts,
who is representing both Temich
and Robert Methvin, who claims
in the second lawsuit that Evan
Cossette used excessive force on
him during an arrest, said in
the lawsuit that despite the
fact Cossette was a certified
EMT "he did not attempt to use
his medical training to assist
the plaintiff but continued in
his reckless fashion of moving
the plaintiff about into various
positions, despite the obvious
critical head injury which meant
the plaintiff should have been
immobilized."
The
internal affairs investigation
by Sgt. Leonard Caponigro, who
is also named in both lawsuits,
found that Evan Cossette
violated the department's policy
on the use of force. But when
Cossette went before Deputy
Chief Timothy Topulos for his
administrative hearing the
charges were lowered and only a
letter of reprimand was placed
in Evan Cossette's file.
Temich's complaint was one of
seven internal affairs
complaints against Evan Cossette
in the past 18 months, more than
any other officer in the
department, records show. None
of the other complaints were
upheld.
One of
those complaints was by Methvin,
who was arrested on Oct. 5, 2010
following a disturbance outside
his home.
The
lawsuit claims that after
Methvin had already been subdued
and handcuffed by another
officer and was on the ground,
Evan Cossette drove his knee
into Methvin's face, causing
serious injury to his jaw and
front teeth that required
multiple surgeries.
A few
days after the incident, Methvin
filed an excessive force
complaint with the police
department. Caponigro did the
investigation but never
interviewed Methvin.
At the
end of the six-minute interview
he conducted with Evan Cossette
about the Methvin case Caponigro
can be heard laughing with
Cossette about how big Methvin
was and concluded the interview
by saying "don't worry, we are
just going through the motions"
and that the case would be
wrapped up in a week or so.
The
lawsuits both seek unspecified
monetary damages. Other officers
named in the Temich suit were
Topulos, Marvin Richards and
Leighton Gibbs, the other
officer seen on the video
entering the cell. Others named
in the Methvin lawuit are
Topulos and Glen Milslagle, who
works in internal affairs.
