By Evan Lips, New Haven
Register
NEW HAVEN >> A Quinnipiac
University graduate who was arrested during his senior year in 2010 for filming
police arresting a classmate outside Toad’s Place recently filed a federal
lawsuit against the city and two police officers.
The complaint, filed Saturday
by Kenneth Hartford, seeks “money damages” and accuses the officers of using
excessive force and violating Hartford’s “constitutional rights to free speech
and to be free from false arrest.”
Hartford was charged with interfering
with police and disorderly conduct. The charges were dismissed more than a year
after Hartford’s Sept. 25, 2010, arrest.
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New Haven Corporation Counsel
Victor Bolden has not responded to a message requesting comment.
Hartford’s lawsuit claims the
city of New Haven “has incurred municipal liability for the constitutional
violations of the individual defendants.” The suit names Officers David Totino
and Richard Miller, but Miller said Thursday the suit incorrectly named him
instead of another officer, and that he has no involvement in the case. The
identify of the other officer could not immediately be confirmed by officials.
An account of Hartford’s arrest
that appeared in the Sept. 28, 2010, edition of Quinnipiac Chronicle quotes
another student as saying police tossed Hartford to the ground and handcuffed
him after he resumed filming following the officers’ commands to stop.
Hartford posted the video
online after he was released from jail, about eight hours after his arrest.
According to the lawsuit,
Hartford had been filming Totino and the other officer “peaceably and from a
distance” as they detained another Quinnipiac University student. The suit
claims Hartford did not interfere with the officers and alleges the other
officer “performed a mocking dance for the camera, in an attempt to deride the
plaintiff.”
Totino is described in the
complaint as ordering Hartford to “put your phone in your pocket and get the
(expletive) out of here.”
The suit noted that Totino told
Hartford he didn’t “have to listen to (expletive)” but added that Totino told
Hartford he could get his name and badge number.
“As a direct result of the
unlawful intimidation of the defendant officers the plaintiff (Hartford) ceased
filming the defendants and retreated from the area,” the complaint states.
“Shortly thereafter the plaintiff begins filming the defendants once again.
Immediately the defendants tackled the plaintiff, taking him to the concrete
sidewalk face-first.”
The complaint also points out
that while Hartford was “further away from the defendants than other friends of
the arrested individual” and happened to be the only one filming, he was the
only member of the group to be tackled to the ground and arrested. Hartford
also claimed Totino and the other officer took his phone and tried to erase the
video but instead “unintentionally and briefly filmed the plaintiff lying
face-down on the ground.”
His arrest report shows police
booked Hartford into the city’s jail at 12:16 a.m.
“Therein, the plaintiff was held
in a locked cell,” the complaint states. “The plaintiff was not processed until
approximately 8 a.m. the following morning.
“Although he violated no law
the plaintiff was falsely charged with a crime and forced to appear in court as
an accused criminal. No probably cause existed for the arrest of the
plaintiff.”
Hartford claims in his
complaint that he was tossed to the ground, arrested and jailed “solely because
he was exercising his lawful right to record police in the public performance
of their duties, as protected by the First Amendment.”
The complaint also notes that
the police chief at the time, Frank Limon, “subsequently admitted knowing that
it is lawful to record police officers in the public performance of their
duties.”
Hartford claims he has suffered
“deprivation of rights, loss of liberty, great terror, fear, humiliation,
indignity, anxiety, stress, emotional and mental distress, upset, physical
injury, suffering and financial loss.”
The complaint does not indicate
the extent of money damages Hartford is seeking but claims “attorney fees and
costs of this action” and “such other relief as this court shall consider to be
fair and equitable.”
His attorney, William S.
Palmieri, could not be reached for comment.
According to Hartford’s
LinkedIn.com account, he currently lives outside of Philadelphia.
Correction: While the lawsuit
names Officer Richard Miller, Miller said Thursday the suit incorrectly named
him instead of another officer, and that he has no involvement in the case. The
identify of the other officer could not immediately be confirmed by officials.
