Judge David Zagaja dismissed the cases against three current and former New Haven police officers accused of mistreating prisoner Richard “Randy” Cox after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022, court records described in the Associated Press said Friday. The dismissal followed a probation program that allows the charges to be erased from defendants’ records, and the judge said their conduct was not malicious, according to the report.
Zagaja dropped the charges against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting them the probation program, the AP reported. The New Haven State’s Attorney John P. Doyle Jr.’s office said prosecutors and Cox did not object to the dismissal, the report said.
The officers’ allegations centered on events after Cox was injured during transport. Cox, 40, was left paralyzed from the chest down on June 19, 2022, after the police van—reported as having no seat belts—braked hard to avoid an accident. Cox was sent head-first into a metal partition while his hands were cuffed behind his back, the AP said.
According to police video cited by the AP, Cox told officers in the van minutes after he was injured: “I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me.” The report said Cox later was found to have broken his neck.
The AP said Diaz, who was driving the van, brought Cox to the police department, where Diaz and other officers allegedly mocked Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, based on surveillance and body-worn camera footage. The report said officers dragged Cox out of the van and around the police station before paramedics brought him to a hospital.
The AP said Lavandier told Cox to move his leg and sit up before he was pulled from the van, according to an internal affairs investigation report. Cox disputed that instruction, saying “I can’t move,” and the AP reported that Lavandier replied, “You’re not even trying.”
Defense lawyers said the dismissed officers did not cause Cox’s injuries. Lavandier’s attorney, Dan Ford, said in an AP interview that “We don’t think that there was sufficient evidence to prove her guilt or any wrongdoing,” describing it as “a negotiated settlement that avoids the risk of having go through the emotional toll of a trial.” Rivera’s lawyer, Raymond Hassett, called the decision to charge the officers “unjust and misplaced,” and said in a statement that actions by the police chief and city mayor targeting the officers amounted to a misguided effort to deflect attention from shortcomings in how the department managed itself and ensured protocols were followed.
The criminal case did not end the fallout from the incident. The AP said attorneys for Cox and Diaz did not immediately return phone and email messages Friday. It also said Cox’s lawyer, Louis Rubano, previously had said Cox and his family hoped the criminal cases would end quickly with plea bargains.
Meanwhile, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said city officials disagreed with the judge’s decision. “What happened to Randy was tragic and awful,” Elicker said in a statement reported by the AP.
The case drew widespread attention and comparisons to Freddie Gray, the report said. It said civil rights advocates, including the NAACP, criticized the officers’ actions and that Gray died in 2015 after suffering a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a Baltimore police van. The AP also reported that the incident contributed to reforms at the New Haven Police Department and led to a statewide seat belt requirement for prisoners.
The AP said New Haven police fired Segui, Diaz, Lavandier and Rivera for violating police conduct policies, while Pressley retired and avoided an internal investigation. It said Diaz appealed his firing and got his job back, Segui lost the appeal of her firing, and appeals by Lavandier and Rivera remained pending. The report also said the city agreed in 2023 to settle Cox’s lawsuit for $45 million.