2 more New Haven officers are being fired in the police van transport incident that left Randy Cox paralyzed
Randy Cox Jr. is seen inside a police van after being arrested by New Haven officers in June 2022.
By Rob Frehse, CNN
(CNN) — Two more police officers in New Haven, Connecticut, are being fired in connection with a 2022 incident that paralyzed Randy Cox as he was being transported in a police van handcuffed and without a seat belt.
The New Haven Board of Police Commissioners voted 5-0 to fire Officer Oscar Diaz and Sergeant Betsy Segui for “violations of General Orders” of the police department, according to a Wednesday statement from Mayor Justin Elicker’s office.
The decision comes three weeks after the board voted to dismiss two other police officers – Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera – who were also involved in Cox’s transport.
The firings marks continued fallout from the June 2022 incident in which an abrupt stop in a New Haven Police Department van left Cox paralyzed from the chest down.
Cox reached a $45 million settlement with the city of New Haven earlier this month – the largest settlement involving a police misconduct case in US history, according to Cox’s attorneys.
An attorney representing Diaz and Segui told CNN the board’s decision was no surprise.
“Tonight was not the opportunity to seek what I believe to be a fair review of a difficult situation,” attorney Jeffrey Mentz told CNN. “Having done police work for three decades, I understand the political area and fishbowl we work within, and police accountability and police responsibility has changed 180 degrees since I’ve been doing this.”
“My two clients and the other two officers have been fired for a terrible injury that happened in an auto accident, which the gentlemen has been fairly compensated,” Mentz added.
Police Chief Karl Jacobson in March recommended terminations of five officers involved. A fifth officer, Ronald Pressley, avoided facing a firing decision by retiring in January, CNN previously reported.
On June 19, 2022, officers transported Cox following his arrest on suspicion of illegally possessing a handgun. A handcuffed Cox can be seen in a video of the transport hitting his head on the van’s back wall as it came to a sudden stop.
The charges against Cox were dropped in October 2022
Mayor Elicker praised the firing votes as “necessary steps towards ensuring accountability for the mistreatment of Randy Cox.”
“While nothing can ever return Randy’s life to the way it was prior to this incident, with the police disciplinary process now complete, the civil lawsuit now resolved and the comprehensive set of reforms now adopted by the police department, we have demonstrated clearly and unequivocally as a community that Randy’s life matters, that Black Lives Matter and that we are resolved to do everything in our power to ensure an incident like this never happens again,” Elicker said in the statement.
Since the incident, the police department has had many training sessions, policy revisions and has added seat belts into jail vans, the police chief previously announced.
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CNN’s Jessica Xing, Ashley R. Williams and Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.
