4 Mins. Of Video Capture Cox Case’s Key Moments; Ben Crump Joins Legal Team

A nationally prominent civil rights attorney has joined the legal team for a 36-year-old New Havener who was partially paralyzed while in police custody — potentially moving the rapidly developing local police misconduct case into the national spotlight.

Meanwhile, the three biggest issues that have emerged in the case are crystallized in under five minutes of edited footage gleaned from a review of hours of video of the incident, from multiple angles.

The national attorney joining the team is Benjamin Crump, a lawyer known as ​“Black America’s attorney general” for his high-profile roles in representing the families of victims of police violence, such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Trayvon Martin.

Crump is working with local attorney Jack O’Donnell to represent the family of Richard Cox, who remains hospitalized and partially paralyzed after flying headfirst against a wall in a police prisoner conveyance van on Sunday.

Crump came to New Haven on Thursday afternoon to meet in person with Cox’s family at Stetson Branch Library and is expected back in town Tuesday for a morning press conference and evening community event. (His office confirmed in a Monday email that he has joined the legal team.)

Cox sustained spine and neck injuries when the officer driving the prisoner conveyance van stopped abruptly to avoid a car crash after speeding down Division Street. After checking on Cox and calling for an ambulance, that officer proceeded to drive the arrestee to the detention center at 1 Union Ave. — where fellow officers dragged him out of the van, processed him in a wheelchair, and put him on the floor of a holding cell, all while Cox told them time and again that he couldn’t move. An ambulance crew treated him there and ultimately took him to the hospital.

Five New Haven police officers — Oscar Diaz, Ronald Pressley, Jocelyn Lavandier, Luis Rivera, and Sgt. Betsy Segui — have been put on paid administrative leave because of their roles in the handling of Cox on Sunday. State police are currently investigating the incident.

O’Donnell told the Independent on Friday that he and Crump have ​“agreed to join forces” in their legal representation of Cox. ​“We’re going to move forward as a team.” 

Connecticut NAACP President Scot X Esdaile, who helped organize Thursday’s meeting at Stetson and arrange Crump’s visit and serves as criminal justice chair for the national NAACP, confirmed that Crump has joined the legal team and will participate in the two events next Tuesday, including a 6:30 ​“town hall” with the Cox family at Stetson Library.

O’Donnell added that he is representing Cox for the criminal weapons charges stemming from his arrest on Sunday at a Lilac Street block party. He is also partnering with the local law firm Weber and Rubano LLC to represent Cox for the injuries he sustained after that arrest while in police custody.

Update: On Monday afternoon, Crump’s law firm sent out an email press release announcing that he has joined Cox’s legal team, and that he will be holding a press conference in New Haven on Tuesday.

“Randy’s quality of life will forever be diminished by the irresponsible actions of Oscar Diaz and the other New Haven police officers while he was under their custody,” Crump is quoted as saying in that press release. ​“Law enforcement respecting every life they interact with and are responsible for is imperative for building trust with the communities they serve, especially communities of color. As Randy Cox continues to fight for his life and future, we will fight for justice for him, his family, and the New Haven community.”

Meanwhile, the Independent has reviewed two hours and 20 minutes worth of police body cam, transport van, and building security video footage released so far by top police officials and the mayor in relation to this incident. 

We have edited that footage down into three key videos showing some of the most consequential moments of Cox’s transport, injury, and handling at the 1 Union Ave. detention center Sunday evening. (See more on those videos later in this story.)

Crump Shows Up

Crump’s presence at Thursday’s afternoon meetup with the Cox family was confirmed by O’Donnell and by Newhallville Alder Devin Avshalom-Smith, both of whom attended the meeting.

Crump — who was in New Haven earlier in the day for a press conference about a favorable ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in a case about Harvard’s use of pictures of a Norwich woman’s enslaved ancestors — did start Tweeting about Cox’s case late on Thursday night.

“Richard Cox called for HELP after his head slammed into the back of a New Haven (CT) Police transport van, yet officers didn’t call for immediate medical assistance and pulled the 36-yo — suffering potential paralysis — from the transport van to a department holding cell!” Crump wrote in a 10:34 p.m. Tweet.

“Police have a duty to protect distressed individuals in their custody, but these officers failed to do their jobs and now a man is seriously injured!” he Tweeted at 10:35 p.m. in that same thread about Cox.

O’Donnell declined to comment about the specifics of Thursday afternoon’s conversation between Crump and Cox’s family, though he did say that Avshalom-Smith and representatives from the NAACP were also in attendance. 

“We all discussed this tragedy and how we’re going to have to do everything in our power to hold the people responsible accountable,” O’Donnell said.

He added that Cox had his second neck surgery on Thursday. O’Donnell said he planned on visiting Cox in the hospital Friday to see how he is doing. On Thursday, O’Donnell told the Independent that Cox was on a breathing tube and could not feel anything from his mid-chest down.

Avshalom-Smith offered a bit more insight into the Thursday afternoon’s meetup between Cox’s family and their legal team. 

Avshalom-Smith said that he knows Cox — who goes by ​“Randy” — because Cox frequently spends time in the section of Newhallville that Avshalom-Smith represents on the Board of Alders.

“It’s tough,” Avshalom-Smith said about Cox’s family. ​“They’re hurt. Rightfully so. But their main concern is that Randy get well. That is the sheer, base-level reaction. Their primary concern from what I understand, from what I heard, is that they’re really focused on Randy getting better. We all want him to get better.”

What does Avshalom-Smith make of this incident so far, based on what he has seen on the police video footage released to the public?

“It’s heartbreaking. I know Randy. I spoke to him that day,” Avshalom-Smith recalled, as they were both at the Lilac Street block party that police were called to Sunday when Cox was arrested on a weapons charge. Avshalom-Smith described Cox as ​“humble” and as always ​“letting me know about what’s going on” in the neighborhood.

“I felt like his humanity wasn’t recognized,” Avshalom-Smith said ​“He was treated in a fashion that was subhuman. I think that’s wrong.”

As an alder, a community leader, and a member of the city’s Civilian Review Board, Avshalom-Smith called on the police department to ​“look more at the culture of some of the treatment of some individuals. I think that can be addressed through training and policy as well.” 

He recognized that ​“the majority of New Haven police officers would not have responded that way.” And he said that, while his ​“heart is broken” and ​“the community is distressed, they are using this as an opportunity to come together to figure out what they can do to create positive change.”

Avshalom-Smith also praised Mayor Justin Elicker, Acting Police Chief Regina-Rush Kittle, and Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson for the way they’ve handled this case so far. 

“They have been extremely responsive and open with sharing the information that they can with the community and the alders,” he said. He praised them for releasing so much video footage so quickly, for alerting the press and the public about this incident within 24 hours of it taking place, for putting the five officers involved on leave, and for taking offline all prisoner conveyance vans that do not have seatbelts.

The Key 4 Minutes & 38 Seconds

The Independent has reviewed the over two hours and 20 minutes worth of video footage released by police officials that show Cox’s arrest, transport, injury, and processing at the 1 Union Ave. detention center.

All of the video footage released by the police so far can be watched in full in this Independent article from earlier this week. They can also be watched directly on YouTube here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

To help readers make sense of this mass of raw video footage, we put together three, shorter, edited clips that highlight some of the key moments from the police’s handling of Cox on Sunday night that inform the investigations and debate spurred by the incident.

The first video focuses in on Officer Oscar Diaz’s abrupt stop of the prisoner transport van as he was speeding across Division Street at 36 miles per hour in a 25 mile-per-hour zone. Diaz was transporting Cox after his arrest from the Newhallville police substation to the 1 Union Ave. lock-up.

That stop, at the intersection of Division and Mansfield, is what sent Cox — who was handcuffed in the back of the vehicle at the time — flying headfirst against the van’s wall.

Top police officials have described Diaz’s abrupt stop as intended to avoid a car crash. 

At the 00:05 mark in the above video, Diaz — as recorded on his own body camera — can be seen honking the van’s horn. As he stops the vehicle, a loud thump can be heard from behind him. That is the sound of Cox’s body flying against the transport van’s wall.

At the 00:23 mark in the above video, footage from a nearby building security camera shows Diaz’s transport van speeding across Division towards Mansfield, where a second car appears to be creeping past a stop sign and into the intersection.

The issues raised by this aspect of the case: Why was Diaz speeding? Why did he not notice until the final moment a vehicle that appeared to be obeying traffic laws? Why was Cox not wearing a seat belt?

Officials have answered that final question: Not all police transport vans have seat belts. The vehicle Diaz drove did not have seat belts, but instead had wall loops for prisoners to hold onto while their hands are cuffed behind their backs. Since the incident, the department has outfitted a second van with seat belts. And officials have ordered the department now use only vans with seat belts to transport prisoners.

The second edited video focuses on Diaz’s transport of Cox in the van from Newhallville to the police detention center at 1 Union Ave.

The first few seconds shows Diaz loading Cox into the back of the van outside of the police substation on Winchester Avenue. ​“Watch your head,” Diaz says as Cox, with his hands cuffed behind his back, climbs into the vehicle.

At the 00:11 mark, footage from inside the back of the transport van shows Cox lying on the floor and kicking against the van’s back wall.

Cox then sits up on the van’s bench, which includes straps attached to the wall. Prisoners can hold onto those straps in the seatbelt-less vehicle as they are transported from one spot to another.

At the 00:27 mark, Cox can be seen sliding forward from a sitting position and flying headfirst into the van’s front wall when Diaz abruptly stops the vehicle. ​“Help! Help!” he cries.

Several minutes later, Diaz pulls the vehicle over at College Street and Grove Street to check in on Cox, who had been crying out for help. 

“What happened?” Diaz asks.

“I can’t move,” Cox replies.

“How your leg is all the way up there?” Diaz asks.

“I fall,” Cox says later in that conversation. ​“I cannot move my arms.”

Diaz then promises to call for an ambulance, which he does while back in the driver’s seat of the van. Instead of waiting for an ambulance crew to come treat Cox on site, as is department protocol, Diaz then proceeds to drive Cox down to the detention center at 1 Union Ave. The issue at stake here is why Diaz didn’t wait for the ambulance to come out to College Street after the officer had stopped the van and checked on Cox.

The third and final edited video focuses on Cox’s arrival at the detention center, and his handling by Officers Pressley, Lavandier, and Rivera, under the supervision of Sgt. Betsy Segui.

“I can’t move,” Cox says.

At the 00:15 mark, the officers can be seen dragging Cox’s crumpled body by his legs out of the van.

“You didn’t crack it. You just drank too much,” Segui says to Cox at the 00:41 mark. ​“You drank too much. Sit up!”

The officers can then be seen putting Cox into a wheelchair. ​“I can’t feel shit,” Cox says. ​“Sit up!” Segui responds. ​“Stop playing around,” another officer responds.

At the 01:15 mark, the officers can be seen processing Cox while he’s slumped over in a wheelchair. ​“Cox, sit up,” Segui says. ​“How much did you have to drink?”

And at the 1:46 mark, two officers can be seen dragging Cox’s limp body into a detention cell. Another officer then cuffs his ankles and shuts the cell door.

“He’s perfectly fine,” one officer says.

The issues at stake here include: Why officers appeared unaware of basic training that calls for not moving a person who has experienced a spine injury, because that greatly increases the dangers of permanent harm; why they took Cox into the lock-up instead of waiting for the ambulance; why they dragged his body into a cell and cuffed his ankles; why they didn’t take him seriously when he said he couldn’t move his body, and instead assumed he was just too drunk.

Investigators from the state police and state’s attorney’s office will now probe those questions, as will the growing legal team preparing a civil lawsuit against the city.