By Kaitlyn Naples
By Susan Raff
This all stems back to an
incident in April where a video showed a man being repeatedly punched by a
police officer.
In a 35-page report the
investigation concluded that the man was beaten up and did nothing to provoke
it.
After the investigation
determined there was an act of police brutality, one Enfield officer was fired
and two others were suspended.
Mark Maher has a scar above his
eye after being beaten up by a police officer. Maher and three others were in a
car parked at the town's boat launch when they were approached by police.
A dash cam inside of the police
cruiser captured pictures of Maher being punched several times by officer
Matthew Worden, even though Maher was being restrained by two other officers.
Maher was arrested for
assaulting an officer, but the charges were dropped.
“All of them that were there -
they did nothing to stop it - they stood there and let it happen. They are
there to protect and serve and they didn't,” Maher said.
Enfield's police chief said the
officers were justified in questioning Maher and the others in the vehicle, but
not in their use of force.
Officer Jaime Yott has been
suspended for 60 days for neglect and inattention to duty. The investigation
found that her police report lacked details and that she failed to write her
use of force in the report based on her own observations.
Officer Michael Emons has been
suspended for 90 days for violating ethics codes, conduct unbecoming of an
officer, using unnecessary force on another person in the car and for turning
in a report containing inaccuracies.
"I know there are good
cops out there - it's just that when something like this happens it really
makes people concentrate on all of the bad,” Maher added.
Enfield's police chief said
that out of 150 calls for service over the past three years, the department has
only investigated 16 internal affairs complaints.
Maher is suing the department.
