Months after a Connecticut man was paralyzed in police custody, officers are facing felony and misdemeanor charges related to the June 19 incident.
On Monday, according to reports, five officers in the New Haven Police Department were arrested and charged with cruelty to persons, a felony, and second-degree reckless endangerment, a class B misdemeanor, against Richard “Randy” Cox.
The officers– including Oscar Diaz, Ronald Pressley, Jocelyn Lavandier, Luis Rivera and Betsy Segui– were involved in transporting and detaining Cox. During the drive in a police van, Cox reportedly wasn’t secured by a seatbelt. Diaz hit the brakes, throwing Cox head first into the front of the rear compartment.
The New Haven Police Department was transporting as a prisoner to a detention facility when Officer Oscar Diaz hit the brakes and Cox was thrown head first into the front of the rear compartment.
According to a transcript during the arrest, Cox continually yelled “help,” but “Officer Diaz never entered the rear of the transport van and failed to render any medical attention to Cox as he remained lying on the floor face down.”
Cox is heard asking for an ambulance, saying ‘Please, please, please, I can’t breathe. … I’m going to die like this.”
After arriving at a detention center, Cox indicated several times that he could not move. The officers continued to process him, eventually “drag[ging] him to a cell by his shoulders while still in handcuffs,” according to a lawsuit Cox filed in September, where he is seeking $100 million in damages.
Each of the five officers arrested have posted a $25,000 bond. They are scheduled to appear at Superior Court in New Haven on Dec. 8.