Hartford Police Officer Rashim Campbell, who was arrested and terminated last year after being accused of assaulting a prisoner, was found not guilty today by a Superior Court Jury.
Closing arguments took place this morning and the jury was given the case after lunch. It took a little over two hurs for the jury to return with their not guilty verdict.
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33 comments:
NICE JOB DARYL, CONGRATS! What a colossal embarrassment for you and the IAD investigators. lol. Too funny. Who in the wide wide world of sports saw this verdict coming? What a joke. Who did the warrant for that? Who was responsible for that investigation? How incompetent can you administration get? Who decided to fire him? Hey how long before Rashim is back on duty? I have great idea, instead of sending the investigator to P.E.R.F. training; send him to basic investigation school.
Incompetent investigations and overzealous pursuit of discipline are typical of your rein at the helm of HPD. Chief this may sound crazy, but at some point, you have to take a long look in the mirror and realize you are doing something wrong. I’m not sure there is one person your administration capable of making impartial, objective discipline decisions. Of course the chief will fight allowing him back to work, and then lose that battle in the long run, and then the City will pay, again. (See a pattern here Pedro?) Oh yeah, here comes Rashim’s civil suit.
PEDRO, How long do you let this go on? Everything is coming to a head at HPD, somebody needs to step up and right the ship.
I've been paying close attention to this from the beginning in 2009, not only can I find it hard to comprehend how he was found not guilty but I can't figure out why this guy was actually hired as a police officer in the first place. His background is jaded at best, his attitude and demeanor on duty was less than ideal, you could even say he was a punk most of the time. The fact that Campbell actually said to several people including an IA investigator that he "whupped his ass" should have been the deciding factor to the jury, it was clear cut. All I can say is he must have had a good lawyer. This is simply more proof that HPD is dedicated to hiring native minority officers regardless of their background or their personality assessment over more qualified non-minorities from outside the city. Answer me this DKR, what good does it do for the city when some of the officers you've chosen to employ are no better than the ones you are trying to take off the street. You know who they are and you know exactly what I'm referring to.
I'll be dammed if Cambell gets his foot back in the door at HPD.
Yeah Segarra, are you staring to wonder yet why HPD can't seem to fire and/or charge their cops with anything that sticks? We'll here's a hint DKR. It's his way or the highway and he doesn't care how weak his case is or what it costs the city in legal battles.
The next city law suit because of DKR will be from LT Daily, remember that. Well, LT Brooks could beat him to it.
As a side note the state is now looking at IAD's report against Campbell and how it made false claims against him. They might be coming for you next LT Ford and you know why.
Not surprising, we all learned after Rodney King that much more then video evidence was needed to get a conviction. Cops will never learn until these b.s. acquittals stop. We need better prosecutors.
For you that commented this Officer should have lost his job. You have no clue what really happened beyond the documents sponsored by Chief Roberts and his lackeys. The video, which I'm sure the jury saw, showed what really happened in booking and Chief Roberts did a good job keeping that video out of the public's eye. Why, because he couldn't doctor that part up.
Maybe Campbell is a "punk", maybe not, but there's a thing called due process. You don't just make up a crime where one doesn't exist just because you want to get rid of a possible problem employee. There's a right way and wrong way to discipline or terminate someone. Telling IAD to "do what it takes to make it happen" is NOT the right way. Right Lt. Ford?
Let the law suits begin. Thanks again Daryl for wasting Hartford's tax dollars on another one of your personal vendettas.
Was Bernier the department advocate for this case? Yup, another loss for the city. Good choice Daryl, putting Bernier and Ford in charge of arresting and disciplining an officer. How is that working out? Your incompetent pupets are failing you.
The first thing that comes to mind are the words of the infamous Seinfeld lawyer, Jackie Chiles: "Yeah, this is going to be a problem, for them! This is totally inappropriate. It's lewd, vesivius, salacious, outrageous!"
What in the hell is happening in this city in 2011 when a scumbag cop actually gets caught beating a prisoner but ONLY loses their job that they shouldn't have had in the first place?! If this guy attempts to get his job back as a repetitively disciplined cop I'm going to do whatever it is that I humanly can to make sure both him and HPD command staff go down in a firey DOJ investigation.
Campbell and the crooked Chief's son in Meriden, Evan Cossette, should be bunked in a cell together so they can beat each other to death. Let's hope Meriden's IA isn't as F'ed up as HPD's.
I see that there are a lot of comments about the offices personality that he's a punk etc.. Let's look at the case by removing the personality, did it rise to the level claimed in the investigation. No it did not a rush to judgement it's quite onions that a jury found him not guilty aced on the facts of the case. Rob Ford and Chief Roberts should. Imbarassed by their overzealous actions. By their actions alone they have cost the city several thousands of dollars again. If the city took the position that these individuals were responsible for the monetary damages you would see these types of personal vendettas stop. They always seem to use the wrong case to pursue. Next time use a case that wll actually stand up in court prior to filing a false allegation. good job DKR and Rob Ford I hope you get what you deserve.
If one takes the time to actually look at the tapes (and I have) ,Rashim Campbell acted appropriately in his use of force. Once again the HPD IAD has just blown it. The jury looked at the tapes, listened to the dirt bag complainant, and had no trouble finding Rashim not guilty in what really amounted to 20 minutes of deliberations.
Oh' it's going to be a lot more than thousands.
Let's see,
Rashim's lawyer will be starting a suit against Hartford under police officer indemnification laws forcing the city to pay all of Rashim's legal expenses for the very court case they unjustly forced him through.
Next Rashim and the police union will be fighting for his job reinstatement and back wages through the CT Labor Board. I assure you the state labor board will reinstate Rashim and rule for complete 100% back pay on this because of the court acquittal (see Murtha).
Then once Rashim is reinstated with HPD, his lawyer will sue the police department for damages outside of just back wages (medical, lost promotional opportunities, stress ect)
Additionally there's some very early buzz that charges might be brought against LT Ford for actual fabrication of evidence, again they might not either that's up to the state prosecutors to decide. If it does there's more money down the drain.
When this is all said and done it will cost the city taxpayers a good half million dollars easy.
I too saw the video multiple times and there's ZERO evidence any misconduct took place. The jury apparently agreed.
The conduct was appropriate?! So this detainee reaches through the bars and swipes the back of the officers neck. The mere fact that the officer opened the cell to do anything with the detainee is inappropriate.
Lets go to an extreme and say that a severely demented person punched the officer through the bars. Does the officer then have authority to go into the cell to kick his ass? Don't think so.
At worse, the detainee should have gotten an extra charge of battery or assault against the officer, NOT having the officer open the cell to go in and get revenge.
Hmmm...who was the Commander if Internal Affairs when Rob Ford conducted that investigation......Neville Brooks.... Hmm who got escorted out of the building and violated Cintron Vs Vaughn leaving over a 100 cases unaccounted for Neville Brooks. Wake up people Neville is a mess and a fraud.....
COMMENT #12. Kevin, there's your story, somebody tilted the hand, let the cat out of the bag.. LOL, that is what they are going after Neville for? They are going to trump up a case against Neville for the way he closed cases while in IAD. Awesome idea Chief. Ooops, wait a minute, the chief would have had to sign off on every one of those. So the chief ok’d them and signed them, but now he will claim ignorance and blame Neville. If nothing else, that is a very grey area. Not to worry, you can interject opinion into the investigation, leave out exculpatory evidence and attack. That’s what you always do, do, do.
Just to clarify, and someone correct me if I am wrong.
To preserve the integrity of IAD, doesn't the Internal Affairs commander answer directly to the Chief? And if that is the case, wouldn't the type of "failure to supervise" charges being thrown at others also potentially apply to the Chief?
They're not going after neville for the cases he investigated and closed but for the 100 that went unassigned , that are missing, that were assigned to neville himself where no report was done. Dozens of citizens have been interviewed who's cases were never investigate while Neville was in charge. How about the iad Sgt that turned him in? The one who wore a wire for over 6months? When the truth about neville comes out you will be all shocked.......
By the looks of comment #12 the Chief is already planning his defense if LT Ford gets arrested. Roberts will just claim ignorance (something he does effortlessly) and dump the onus on Neville.
If only the Chief was as good at being a leader as he is at covering his own ass, HPD would be a positive place to work at and the lawsuits would decrease significantly.
To blame the commander of IA for this black eye on the city is absolutely absurd. Let's lay blame where it should be right at the feet of Robert Ford and Chief Roberts. Did everyone forget that it was the Chief's face in front of the news cameras claiming that it was police brutality before the facts were in place. Also, how do you get a warrant rejected three times?What the third time wast the charm. I believe that the Chief forced the States Attorney's office to sign the warrant based on his media blitz. It's time to make wholesale changes in the command structure at HPD.
That 5:16 comment is spot on.
The cops need to take a vote of "no confidence" in Chief Roberts before the union and if it passes take it before the Mayor and media.
It seems like there are a few different points people are making here, however they all point in the same direction. On one side the firing of Campbell didn't go as planned and will result in more money lost that the city doesn't have in the first place. Also there's the point that if Campbell showed some restraint he would have never returned to the cell when the alleged assault took place. Another side is, what defective hiring policy loophole did Campbell fall through in order to get hired in the first place? Detectives like Gogins that cross all the t's and dot all the i's when it comes to background investigations can't possibly be to blame. So who is responsible for giving this guy, who never had the integrity to begin with, a job with HPD? Who is more at fault?
Craziness,
Valid points , but you are only hitting the tip of the iceberg. In the near future you will be able to read about a recently terminated police officer who was hired despite his previous arrest record, despite the fact that allegations were made (and documented) that he was (and apparently is) a bigamist with two wives and finally he was terminated as a Correction Officer in another state after it was found that he was having sex with female inmates, again all documented.
Does that raise any issues for you regarding the hiring practices the City of Hartford is using?
But then again, if we have an "exalted" class in the Chief's complex, why should we expect anything different?
I haven't heard anything lately concerning LT. Foley's lawsuit vs. Hartford, McCoy and DKR. A serious question, what more will it take for the union to vote on a no-confidence in DKR?
Kevin,
I assume you and DKR are refering to the most recent 'exaulted' class with the exception of one (recently fired probationary officer)
It does raise concerns but it's not the first red flag that I've seen. An acquaintance who attempted to get hired on with HPD told me that a member of command staff who he is close to told him he was "too white", then added they are looking to hire minority Hartford citizens, only after the entire recruitment process. He felt that it was a joke and a waste of time. How true this is I can't say, I didn't hear it with my own ears, however it doesn't sound too far fetched.
The "exalted" status was a reference to Lt. Brooks' CHRO complaint where he claims he was told by Chief Roberts that the other Chiefs had an "exalted" status and shouldn't be questioned aggressively by IAD inspectors
I was on the jury i do have some things to say. The evidence of of a witch hunt was the strongest evidence in the court room. If you acually saw the eviedence like I did you would have made the same choice that we all made together .
Kevin,
My apologies, I understand now what you were referring to. After everything else I've seen and heard about the current command staff at HPD I completely agree, why should we expect anything less? Nothing is surprising anymore. This will be a long and messy unraveling, til we hit a no confidence vote. With any luck a stronger GOP in city hall, but at the very least not Segarra or an equivalent, will help.
Anonymous 8:46PM,
I appreciate your comment and would greatly appreciate getting more of your viewpoint. If we could speak off the record and with complete confidentiality, feel free to call me, my number is posted here on the blog
Hey, What chief is in charge of backgrounds? Yup, you guessed it, Good ole' Car Crash Mckoy.... nuff said.
Witch Hunt at HPD, nooo.... you dont say. Well color me shocked. Neville, Dailey and a laundry list of others should get on their brooms and fly to Salem Ma. and dunk themselves in a lake.
To cut the chase, several things have to happen and happen fast. Begin an outside search for a new chief and command staff, a vote of NO CONFIDENCE and speech lessons for "ole mumble mouth"
Anonymous Juror,
I'm glad you posted what you did. I, along with everyone who reads this blog I'm sure, would really like to hear more about how things went. It could help uncover a few things I'm sure.
Thank you.
Campbell was arrested for saying "I whupped his ass"???
Then Pepler is ordered to give details of a private, off duty, out of state conversation, and then ordered to put it on paper???
Who the "F" is running this place?
Stop plying secret squirrel DKR and show the video to your officers. You owe it to them to show them. Roll the embarrassment... You might as well, the Karma Police are coming for you!
You read this blog, stop pretending you dont.
Who the "F" is running this place?
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I'd ask the same question non-rhetorically, that is, I'd really like to know.
What independent authority has the Chief? How much control have our muni political guys? Our congress critters engage in a good bit of oversight of the executive branch, should our muni guys have analogous public hearings to learn of the Department's management or the Mayor's? To what extent is the Department controlled by State labor law or State oversight? (It is suggested that Mr. Campbell will as an outcome of a State process inevitably get his job back, etc.)
In the opinion of you folks with more intimate dealings with the Department than mine, are its bureaucratic/managerial issues worse now than previously and are they worse than in similarly situated departments (New Haven, Bridgeport, for example)?
THERE IS A VIDEO FOLKS.....ONCE YOU SEE THE VIDEO LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN COURT DID THEN YOU ALL CAN GO COMMENT ON ANOTHER WEBSITE. HOW CAN ANYONE COMMENT WHEN THERE IS A CLEAR VIDEO THAT THE JUDGE AND THE JURY WATCHED OVER AND OVER AGAIN...LOL! THE INJURIES THAT THE VICTIM TESTIFIED TO IN COURT WERE NOT IN THE VIDEO. THATS WHY CAMPBELL WON! HELLOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Why they keep delaying what's imminent this guy DKR is a joke just like his sidekick Bushwick Ford. Hey Ford I hope you having fun at that chief of police training after this one the only department you be able to run is the zoo.
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