By John Christoffersen
NEW HAVEN — A Bridgeport police
officer has been charged with violating a man’s civil rights by using unreasonable
force during an arrest captured on video, prosecutors said Friday.
A grand jury indicted Clive
Higgins, 48, the US attorney’s office said. Higgins pleaded not guilty Friday
in New Haven federal court and was released on $50,000 bond.
His lawyer, federal public
defender Paul Thomas, declined to comment beyond his client’s plea.
The video showed police
officers kicking and stomping Orlando Lopez-Soto after he was shot with a stun
gun and fell to the ground in Beardsley Park in 2011 following a car chase. It
is unclear who recorded the video, which was posted online.
Prosecutors said that after
another officer deployed his stun gun, Higgins approached the man, who was
lying prone on the ground, and kicked him in the head and neck.
Higgins, a Bridgeport police
officer since 2002, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He was placed
on unpaid suspension Friday, a police spokesman said.
The other two officers, Elson
Morales and Joseph Lawlor, pleaded guilty in June to deprivation of rights
under color of law. Morales and Lawlor agreed to resign and each face up to a
year in prison when they are sentenced Sept. 2.
Prosecutors said Morales used
his stun gun a second time after Lopez-Soto was effectively incapacitated and
Lawlor kicked him several times.
The city recently settled the
case by agreeing to pay $198,000 to Lopez-Soto.
The victim said in his lawsuit
that he was motionless on the ground and not resisting when the officers kicked
and stomped him. He said he suffered pain, a cut to his lip that left a scar,
body and face bruises and a fracture to his hand.
Lawlor wrote in a police report
that Lopez-Soto struggled with officers after falling to the ground when
Morales zapped him with a stun gun. Lawlor said Lopez-Soto was wearing a gun
holster on his belt, and officers later found a loaded handgun and drugs in his
van.
All three officers seen in the
video, which surfaced in 2013, were placed on paid administrative duty pending
a police internal affairs investigation. NAACP leaders at the time called on police
officials to arrest and fire the officers.
Lopez-Soto pleaded guilty to
drug and gun charges in July 2012 and was sentenced to five years in prison.
