Contributed Photo.
Abel Sanchez after his alleged beating and Macing in 2008.
After winning a $50,000 settlement with the city for a man who claimed he was viciously beaten by Officer Dennis O’Connell, attorney Paul Garlinghouse is poised to file a second suit — on behalf of another alleged victim of the same cop.
O’Connell, who is still on the force, has been accused of police brutality nine times in six years. The police department has found him blameless in all of the internal investigation cases it has completed.
One of his alleged victims, Abel Sanchez, sued O’Connell and the city in 2008, with the help of Garlinghouse. Sanchez accused O’Connell of shoving him to the ground, punching and kicking him, handcuffing him, and then Macing him in January 2008. In July of this year, the city settled with Sanchez for $50,000.
Click here to read the complaint. Police offered a different version of what happened.
Another of O’Connell’s alleged victims, Alvaro Garzon, will file a similar suit on Friday, said Garlinghouse, who’s also representing him. Garzon claims O’Connell placed him in handcuffs then Tased him three times and kneed him in the throat during an incident in July 2010.
Activists from the organizations People Against Police Brutality and Unidad Latina en Accion plan a rally on Friday to mark the Sanchez settlement, the new Garzon suit, and two other previously reported incidents of alleged police brutality by New Haven cops.
While it’s the first time that an alleged victim of O’Connell has seen any compensation for alleged abuse, the city’s $50,000 settlement is not an admission of guilt.
“As a general matter, the City enters into settlements to resolve outstanding litigation without an admission of liability and this case is no different,” said city corporation counsel Victor Bolden in an email.
“It’s specifically not an admission,” Garlinghouse said. “They [city and police officials] didn’t admit it. That is absolutely their position.”
Garlinghouse said he thinks the city settled in part because of the history of complaints against O’Connell. “That made it particularly unwise for the city to try to take this to a jury.”
The case represents an expense of more than just the $50,000 for the city, Garlinghouse said.
“They’ve had to pay lawyers, so it becomes a not insignificant amount of money that [O’Connell]‘s cost the city,” he said. “So this is a problem. This is not good police management.”
The city likely also settled because “the story of what happened to Mr. Sanchez is absolutely sickening,” Garlinghouse said. Sanchez was viciously beaten “for the offense of, I guess, being there and the officer taking a dislike to him.”
Garlinghouse said he’s not optimistic that the settlement will lead to changes in police activity. He pointed to the police protest last February, in which hundreds of cops blocked off the street in front of City Hall to protest layoffs. “What these guys were saying is we own the city of New Haven and we can do whatever we want,” he said. “It’s a very frightening message.”
The department has seen a “revolving door of chiefs” and “nothing from the mayor,” he said. “These police, honestly, they’re running themselves. They’re the only ones investigating themselves.” So it’s not surprising that O’Connell is always cleared of any wrongdoing by Internal Affairs investigations, he said.
Activists will gather on Friday at 10 a.m. at the courthouse on Elm Street. In addition to the cases of Garzon and Sanchez, they’ll highlight the cases of Jewu Richardson and Luis Jimenez. Richardson will appear in court Friday to answer charges of evading responsibility and assaulting a police officer during an incident in which he was shot in the chest by a New Haven cop.
Jimenez continues to fight charges against him stemming from a May 14, 2010 incident in which he was allegedly beaten in front of his children by a New Haven cop during a traffic stop.