Quinnipiac grad sues New Haven over 2010 arrest after filming cops



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.