Christopher Peak Photo
Det. Daniel Conklin leaves federal court after a Sept. 2017 case.
A controversial New Haven cop is not only back on the force, but about to head back to court — sued this time for allegedly driving recklessly and crashing his police cruiser into a dirt bike.
Det. Daniel Conklin, the subject of multiple internal misconduct investigations and a federal lawsuit, is scheduled appear in state court next week as a trial begins in that case.
He has denied any responsibility for the collision, blaming it on the dirt biker. At least one witness corroborated his version.
Amid publicity about repeated incidents of abusing citizens’ rights, verified by internal investigations, Conklin had turned in his New Haven badge last month for a new job in Westport. But when citizens there expressed outrage over having him patrol their city, he asked for his old job back, which New Haven’s police officials enthusiastically gave him.
In the latest suit, the plaintiff contends that in April 2013, Conklin acted negligently by swerving into oncoming traffic and colliding with the man’s dirt bike. As a result of the accident, the biker stated, he suffered from a fractured kneecap and severe gashes on his face.
In their response, city lawyers defending Conklin said they “lack sufficient knowledge” about what happened, telling the dirt biker to prove his claims. They also argue that the dirt biker was actually the one acting carelessly, by speeding and failing to swerve out of the way. And unlike in a federal case against Conklin last fall, in which he couldn’t produce key evidence to justify his actions, the city has at least one witness to back up his account this time.
Conklin did not respond to an email asking for comment.
The Crash
On April 1, 2013, around 10:45 a.m., Keith T. Manson, who is 39, was riding a small dirt bike on Flint Street, about four blocks from his home. He wore a black mask over his face.
Near the I‑91 onramp, Flint Street branches off Quinnipiac Meadows’s main thoroughfare, Middletown Avenue, and goes up a grade. As Manson traveled east down the hill, Conklin, headed west. They collided. The dirt bike’s tire hit the police car’s front fender. The impact threw Manson over the handlebars onto the hood of the cruiser.
The question: Who’s at fault?
The plaintiff’s side: Conklin acted “suddenly and without warning.” “He pulled into the path of the [bike] … without considering the danger of his actions,” alleges the complaint written by his lawyer, Alphonse J. Balzono, Jr. “He was inattentive and failed to properly operate his police cruiser in a safe and prudent manner.”
Driving on the wrong side of the road without his siren on, Conklin was speeding “at a rate that was unreasonable, improper and excessive under the circumstances,” Balzano argued.
The city’s side: Manson swerved at the intersection and sped “at an unreasonable rate,” Alyssa Torres, the city’s assistant corporation counsel, wrote in a response brief. “He failed to keep a proper and reasonable lookout for other motor vehicles upon the roadway. He failed to apply his brakes in time,” and “he failed to turn the motor vehicle that he was operating to the left or right so as to avoid a collision.”
A witness contacted by the Independent said Conklin’s account is more accurate.
Mario Natareno, a neighbor who lives a few doors down from the intersection, was watching his son play near the curb when the crash happened. He said he saw Manson zigzag across the road, lose control of his dirt bike and slam into Conklin’s car, which had already stopped.
“I’ve been saying the same thing for the last four years: the guy [on the dirt bike] was wrong,” Natareno said. “He does not deserve a even a penny.”
After the crash, Manson settled on the ground near the cruiser’s tires. According to Conklin’s written report, Manson flailed his arms when the cop approached him. “Show me your hands,” Conklin said he yelled several times in a loud voice.
Conklin grabbed his wrist, and Manson tensed up and tried to pull away. “Stop resisting,” Conklin claimed he said. He pushed Manson onto his stomach and put him in handcuffs.
Then, noticing a gas leak, Conklin said, he dragged Manson’s body away from the spill. A supervisor and emergency responders arrived. Conklin turned on his flashing lights.
Manson suffered facial lacerations and a broken kneecap in the accident. He was transported to the hospital, where doctors stuck a metal rod in his femur. The medical bills totaled about $80,000, according to the court filings.
His dirt bike was towed to the police department’s garage on Sherman Parkway.
Conklin issued Manson with a misdemeanor summons. Before a traffic judge, Manson didn’t contest a ticket for failing to insure the dirt bike and for reckless driving. Manson also didn’t contest a misdemeanor reckless endangerment charge. He got a conditional discharge for both, a special form of one-year probation.
Manson stated that he walks with a limp today. He said his body still aches with pain, stiffness and spasms from his knee to his right shoulder that prevented him from continuing his job, a claim that city lawyers question. Manson said he has also suffered headaches, anxiety and trouble sleeping after he accident. “He endured and continues to endure great pain to the mind and body,” Balzano wrote in the complaint.
City’s Role
In a special defense, the city’s lawyer argued in a filing that Conklin had the “objectively reasonably” belief that his actions were lawful, even if a jury concludes they weren’t.
As a public employee, Conklin is entitled leeway to make mistakes without having to pay for them in court, the city argued. That’s because “qualified immunity” gives him “ample room for mistaken judgments, by protecting ‘all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law,’” as the Supreme Court wrote in a 1991 case.
To block that exception, Manson’s lawyers argued that Conklin should have foreseen the imminent harm to the victim from the crash.
A jury will decide the facts of what happened back in 2013. Then, if they conclude Conklin was negligent, a judge will determine whether to apply the qualified immunity standard.
Either way, Conklin won’t have to pay, because the city’s indemnity clause means it is obligated to cover the damages. That’s true so long as Conklin was acting “within the scope of his employment,” which city lawyers conceded in their court filings.
Keeping Conklin’s Past Hidden
Markeshia Ricks Photo
The Police Commission gives Conklin his job back at a December meeting.
Dating from Conklin’s early years on the force, the litigation now before the court is reaching trial after three years in the system.
Manson’s attorney had alerted the city that the suit was coming in a letter sent to the town clerk just a month after the accident, but he didn’t file the suit until April 2015. A year later, in Sept. 2016, the city declined an offer to settle the case for $400,000.
Since then, the legal teams have amended their cases, pushed back the trial date and tried to keep evidence out of trial. The city’s corporation counsel has sought to block the jury from anything about officer’s past misconduct, Conklin’s employment status or department procedures for flicking on lights and sirens. Likewise, Manson’s attorney doesn’t want the jury to hear about his client’s past alcohol and drug use, his other arrests and the no-contest pleas.
Nearly five years after the crash, jury selection is finally scheduled to begin Thursday, Feb. 1. At the trial, which is expected to run three days, Conklin and Mason are both scheduled take the stand. Jurors could also hear testimony from a family member, four doctors, seven cops, the city’s liability investigator, and three bystanders.
The New Haven Police Department would have known about the complaint when it promoted Conklin to the position of detective in late 2016.
At the time, the department’s internal affairs division had already concluded the Conklin defied department policy and abused the public in three separate incidents, and in some cases told untruths about his conduct, according to files made available to the Independent under the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act. Conklin denied the allegations of misconduct.
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. In a third, he shoved and threatened to tow the “fucking car” of a “motherfucker” fisherman who’d parked on a bridge. He served a total of one day of suspension for all those verified misdeeds.
And at the time of his promotion, Conklin was also the subject of a federal lawsuit over alleged violations an Edgewood man’s constitutional rights. After a dispute over Conklin’s handling of traffic during road maintenance, the citizen claimed Conklin had arrested him and seized a cellphone he used to record the interaction. Conklin denied the allegations.
The subsequent trial included embarrassing revelations — such as the disappearance of key alleged evidence — but a jury decided not to award damages.
In November, Conklin resigned from the New Haven police force to take a job in Westport. But an online news posting ignited outrage among the town’s citizens and elected officials, sending Conklin in retreat back to New Haven.
After the two-day lapse in employment, members of the Police Commission voted unanimously to rehire him.