Feds Want Records Of Homes Owned
By Meriden Chief's Family
By DAVE
ALTIMARI,
The
Hartford Courant
4:40 PM
EST, November 17, 2011
MERIDEN -
Federal
authorities investigating
brutality charges against the
city police chief's son have
subpoenaed the city seeking
Housing Department records for
three properties owned by
members of the chief's family.
Among
the records the city must
produce are all police
department and housing authority
records for three addresses – 51
View St., 20 Jackson St. and 28
Jackson St.
The
View Street house is owned by
Police Chief Jeffry Cossette's
son, Evan Cossette, who
purchased it for $65,100 in
March 2010, according to
property records. Both of the
Jackson Street houses are owned
by Susan D. Cossette, the wife
of Jeffry Cossette. She
purchased both properties in
September 2009 for the same
price of $95,200, city records
show.
Federal
authorities are seeking all
"documents that set forth the
policy and procedures of the
Housing Division for responding
to allegations of harassment,
intimidation or discriminatory
treatment."
They
also are seeking any documents
concerning code violation
enforcement, referral of code
violations to another
department, inspections,
complaint response and records
for the city's Neighborhood
Rehabilitation Advisory Board.
The
advisory board's main function
is to eliminate blight in the
city. If a property owner is
cited by either police or
housing officials they can
appeal to the advisory board,
according to board member Craig
Hanson.
Hanson
said he doesn't remember any of
the homes owned by the
Cossette's ever coming before
the board.
City
officials said Thursday they are
gathering the records. They must
be turned over to the grand jury
by Dec. 7.
It is
unclear why federal authorities
are suddenly focusing on
properties owned by the Cossette
family, although it signal that
the grand jury investigation is
likely to go far deeper than the
original brutality allegations
against Evan Cossette.
Federal
and state authorities convened a
grand jury last April to
investigate brutality
allegations against Evan
Cossette after two officers,
Donald Huston and Brian
Sullivan, complained that he was
getting preferential treatment
when it came to disciplinary
matters because his father is
the police chief.
Evan
Cossette was accused of police
brutality in three separate
cases including a May 2010
incident in a jail cell that was
videotaped. On the tape Cossette
pushes a handcuffed suspect,
Pedro Temich, backward into the
jail cell. Temich hit his head
on a cement bench and passed out
on the floor bleeding.
Evan
Cossette is shown on the tape
walking into the cell several
times and moving Temich around
before taking his handcuffs off
just before ambulance personnel
arrived. Evan Cossette was given
a letter of reprimand in that
case. After that there were two
more brutality claims made
against him.
One
case involved Robert Methvin,
who Evan Cossette acknowledged
kneeing in the face in October
2010 after police had been
called to Methvin's home because
of a loud argument. Methvin
filed a brutality complaint with
internal affairs but was never
interviewed by the unit, led at
that time by Sgt. Leonard
Caponigro.
Caponigro found the allegations
in the matter baseless after a
six-minute interview with
Cossette in which he told the
chief's son not to worry because
he was "just going through the
motions." Caponigro announced
this week that he was retiring.
In the
third case, Evan Cossette used a
Taser to subdue Joseph G. Bryans
in the parking lot of the
Midstate Medical Center in
January. Bryan had walked out of
the emergency room because he
was not getting treatment and
the hospital called police.
Cossette tackled him and, after
handcuffing him, shot Bryan
several times in the back with a
stun gun. Caponigro cleared
Cossette in that case as well.
All
three men are suing the city and
the police department.
Copyright
© 2011, The Hartford Courant
