Marcia Chambers Photo
The address at 134 Burban Drive is well known to Branford police. They know it is a group home for those with mental disabilities located in a quiet residential neighborhood off Alps Road. Since the facility opened its doors in 2013, the police have answered eight emergency 911 calls at the residential house.
All eight calls to the police, which were made from March 2014 to Oct. 29, 2014, were described as “psychiatric cases.” The Eagle obtained a list of the calls through a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the police department. It is not yet known if any of those 911 calls related to a man named David Werblow, but it is believed that police knew of him.
The most recent 911 call from 134 Burban Drive to the Branford police department was made on March 15 at 7:45 p.m. A caseworker for Werblow, 41, who was a resident at the facility, told police that Werblow was “in extreme distress.” In police parlance this translates via police code to “a person creating a disturbance.”
What followed was Werblow’s escape from the home, a chase, Werblow’s decision to get into a car, and a police decision to Taser him. By 10 p.m. that night, Werblow, who was unarmed, would be dead and a major investigation by the state police into the actions of the Branford police would be underway. Click here to read the story.
Whether Werblow was being treated at the facility for his psychiatric problems is not known. Whether medications had been administered is not known. Whether medications were prescribed but not taken is not known. Indeed little is known because secrecy prevails in these types of cases. Why he was still living on Burban Drive instead of in a more secure facility is a question yet to be answered.
One thing is known: the police officers who arrived at the scene that night knew they were going to a group home for the mentally ill. The home is owned by Continuum of Care, a New Haven-based non-profit. The organization purchased the residence at 134 Burban Drive after receiving a state grant from the Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services.
All Branford Cops Wear Body Cams
When the police arrived at 134 Burban Drive they were wearing body cameras, presumably turned on as they usually are. Body cams for this police department, unlike many others in the nation, have been a part of a Branford cop’s daily life since 2012 when Police Chief Kevin Halloran ordered them for all 51 police officers and himself. A pilot camera program began in 2008 so this department has a long history of using and liking body cams. Click here to read about the department’s history with body cams.
One obvious benefit of a body camera is that investigators get to view the actions of police, of suspects, and of situations as they unfold. And that is what is happening now.
Only this time, the chief state’s attorney reviewing the videos is not from New Haven. The Werblow case has been moved from the chief state’s attorney office in New Haven to the chief state’s attorney’s office in Waterbury in order to avoid conflict of interest issues since police and prosecutors work closely together. The videos are being examined by Maureen Platt, who is the State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of Waterbury, and by the state police.
As it turns out, a bill now pending before the state legislature would mandate that all deaths caused by a police officer’s use of deadly force would be investigated by prosecutors from a different district.
What The Cops Did Not Know
What the police did not know when they arrived at 134 Burban Drive was that David Werblow was under house constraint, a term also known as “premise restriction.” This means he was not permitted to go outdoors. He was an imposing man, one who weighed more than 300 pounds and his problems, whatever they were, were such that he was not permitted to be in public.
When the police entered the house that night to speak to Werblow’s case worker – the person who had called 911 minutes before – Werblow did not sit tight. Instead he fled.
Now the police were facing a very different situation. Surprised by Werblow’s flight onto the street, they followed him out onto Burban Drive, a street with a good deal of automobile traffic.
Once outside, Werblow began to act erratically, police said. They ran after him, telling him to stop; they asked him to get him to get down on the ground. He ignored them. Instead he kept weaving his body in out of traffic, trying to get motorists to open their doors.
One neighbor told the New Haven Register that she saw police and a woman chasing the man. This woman would have been Werblow’s case worker, the woman who called police and who followed the cops outside when Werblow fled on foot. The neighbor told the Register she was pleading with the man, “whom she called David,” to follow police orders. The police, the neighbor told the newspaper, “didn’t hit him or anything like that. The guy was really, he was excessive.”
Police are trained to use “advisements, warnings, and verbal persuasion, when possible before resorting to force” and it appears from the witness accounts they were doing that.
All the cops at the scene were also well-versed in a set of departmental policies regarding mental illness.
When dealing with a person who may have mental illnesses, officers are told that their “own actions may have an adverse effect on the situation. Actions that officers should generally avoid include moving suddenly or giving rapid orders or shouting or moving into that person’s zone of comfort,” the police department’s mental illness protocol states.
But once Werblow escaped from the group home, officers faced a moving, agitated man who would not listen to his caseworker or to them. He was volatile and appeared to be in extreme emotional distress.
After skirting among the moving cars, Werblow managed to find an unlocked car parked in a driveway on Burban Drive, near his apartment, police said. Officers attempted to get Werblow to leave the car but he ignored them. Based on Werblow’s actions thus far, the police appeared to be concerned that he could possibly gain control of the car and drive away, putting more people in danger.
Taser Policy
At that point, Police Officer John Abely deployed his Taser in order “to gain control of” the man and the car. The state police press release did not say how many times the Taser was used. The Eagle has sought this information through an FOI request. So far we have been turned down because this is part of the evidence in the case, the State’s Attorney’s office said.
According to the Branford Police Department’s directive on electronic weapons, a Taser weapon “shall only be used in situations where the subject is actively resisting or attempting to avoid arrest by escape and poses an imminent threat to the safety of him/herself, another person, or the officer.”
After the Taser was used, Abely and other police officers were able to remove Werblow from the car and place him in handcuffs. According to the state police, police officers immediately noticed that he was in medical distress. A Branford Fire department ambulance, which was in the vicinity, arrived quickly but medics were unable to revive him. There were unconfirmed reports that he had a heart attack.
State police immediately confiscated the body cameras from all the officers involved in the event that night. They and the state’s attorney’s office in Waterbury are now reviewing the body cam information. The cameras will presumably provide investigators with a clear sequence of events and actions as seen from various angles.
In March, the Eagle made a formal request under the FOIA for all body camera and video footage regarding Werblow and the events leading up the use of the Taser. We also asked for any all “case incident” reports relating to him at the Burban Drive address.
We have been informed that the state police and the State’s Attorney’s office have deemed these requests as “evidence” in the case and therefore exempt from FOIA statutes until the investigation is completed and the information is no longer classified as evidence.
How long this investigation will take remains unclear. Officer Abely and another officer are now on desk duty at the police department.
It is common practice for an autopsy to be performed when police interactions involving the use of force result in death. As of this time, the autopsy results have not been made public.
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