Five Connecticut police officers were charged with misdemeanors Monday for their treatment of a black man after he was left paralyzed from the chest down in the back of a police van.
Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station on June 19 for arraignment on a weapons charge when the driver slammed on the brakes, apparently to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly from head against the wall of the van, police said.
As Cox pleaded for help, saying he couldn’t move, some of the officers taunted him, accusing him of being drunk and faking his injuries. The officers then dragged him out of the van and placed him in a holding cell before his eventual transfer to a hospital.
CONNECTICUT MAN GOT PARALYZED IN BACK OF NEW HAVEN POLICE VAN GOING BACK TO HOSPITAL, SUIT DELAYED
The five New Haven police officers were charged with reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons in the second degree.
The agents turned themselves in Monday at a state police station. Each was arraigned, posted $25,000 bail and is due back in court on December 8, according to a state police news release. Messages seeking comment were sent to the officers’ attorneys.
Richard “Randy” Cox, center, is pulled from the back of a police van after being detained by New Haven police on June 19, 2022, in New Haven, Connecticut. Cox was paralyzed as he was being driven away in the back of the pickup truck.
(New Haven Police via AP, File)
WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, POLICE LIMITS USE OF VAN AFTER NEW HAVEN INCIDENT
The case has drawn outrage from civil rights advocates such as the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Gray, who was also black, died in 2015 after sustaining a spinal injury while handcuffed and chained in a city police van.
Five officers were placed on administrative leave in the Cox case. The state later dropped all charges against Cox that led to him being put in the van. They included illegal possession of a firearm and threats.
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New Haven officials announced a series of police reforms this summer stemming from the case, including eliminating the use of police vans for most prisoner transports and using marked police vehicles instead. They also require officers to immediately call an ambulance to respond to their location if the prisoner requests or appears to need medical help.
