Markeshia Ricks Photo
Conklin at Monday night’s commission meeting.
A former detective with a past checkered with misconduct is once again a sworn officer in New Haven, after a vote and secretive deliberations by the Police Commission.
After going into executive session to receive a legal opinion from its attorney on “resignation, rescission of resignation and the role of [the] Board,” the commissioners decided Monday night that they needed to vote on whether or not to rehire Conklin.
Conklin resigned from the New Haven force effective Nov. 27 after the town of Westport hired him.
He was set to be sworn in there the week of Nov. 27. Then an online news site in that town, called WestportNow, reprinted a New Haven Independent story about Conklin’s checkered history, including internal affairs investigations into three separate incidents that concluded that Conklin had harassed and falsely arrested citizens and then offered untrue versions of events under oath.
The Westport Now posting ignited outrage among citizen commenters as well as elected officials. The town’s first selectman and police chief stood behind the hiring. When the public outcry grew louder, Conklin retreated back to New Haven and rescinded his resignation just two days later on Nov. 29.
Police officials decided to let him return, without a vote by the police commission.
But those two days constituted “a lapse in employment,” according to the motion made Monday night by Commissioner Evelise Ribeiro and necessitated that Police Chief Anthony Campbell’s decision to rehire him be approved by the board. Campbell recommended that the Conklin be rehired as of Nov. 29.
Conklin, who was present at Monday’s meeting, was given the option by the board to speak to members in an open or closed session. He opted for a closed session that lasted nearly 25 minutes. Conklin has given no public statements during the controversies about him, beyond testifying in a federal civil court case this past September about one incident in which a citizen said the officer lost his temper and arrested him on false charges while stealing a cellphone the citizen was using to record his actions. (Conklin testified that he could no longer produce most of the evidence to support that arrest, and the city never “found” the cellphone or the footage, but a jury cleared Conklin of civil-rights violations.)
When commissioners returned to open session Monday night they voted unanimously to rehire Conklin. Conklin declined a reporter’s request for comment about his rehiring.
Board Chairman Anthony Dawson said after the meeting that Conklin expressed his awareness of the public concern of his past behavior. After talking to him commissioners felt comfortable rehiring him.
“The commission brought him in just to talk to him and let him know that ‘You came back after leaving, and we expect you to do an even better job curtailing some of the public opinions about you,’” Dawson said. “And he sort of agreed that he’s a good officer and that he would need to demonstrate to this body that he would be even a better officer.”
Conklin could have a long road in earning the trust of the public and the officers who investigated his misconduct.
Chief Campbell: Couldn’t wait to get Conklin back on the streets.
The New Haven police’s conclusions about Conklin’s misconduct were spelled out in files made available to the Independent under the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act. Conklin denied the misconduct allegations. (Click here for a story detailing those incidents.) In one instance, investigators found, Conklin destroyed evidence on a bogus stop. In a second he harassed and arrested a man outside his home on trumped-up charges. He shoved and threatened to tow the “fucking car” of a “motherfucker” fisherman who’d parked on a bridge in the third incident. He served a total of one day of suspension for those misdeeds.
Chief Campbell promoted Conklin to detective despite that history of misconduct.
At the time of Conklin’s promotion to detective, he was also the subject of a federal lawsuit filed by an Edgewood man who claimed Conklin had arrested him and seized a cellphone he used to record his actions, because of a dispute over Conklin’s handling of a construction site traffic assignment. Conklin denied the allegations. The subsequent trial included embarrassing revelations — such as the disappearance of alleged key evidence — but ended with a jury deciding not to reward damages.
Campbell Monday night reiterated his comfort with rehiring Conklin, saying that he supported the detective “100 percent.”
“I feel comfortable bringing him back because I was sad to see him go in the first place,” Campbell said. “Any discipline that he had was years back. Under my command, he’s done nothing but excellent work. If there ever is a problem with him he is real straightforward.”
Campbell said he told the Westport police chief that if that town decided not to take Conklin after all, he would “take him back in a heartbeat.”
“I’ve no problems with him,” Campbell added. “I think he does excellent work. He’s the guy that even when he was disciplined years ago, when I was running Internal Affairs, he said he was thankful that [then-]Chief [Dean] Esserman did what he did and that he learned from it and it made him a better cop. And someone who has a positive attitude like that — definitely I feel comfortable having him here.”