Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody continues to show that he thinks he is above the law. He showed it last summer when he evaded a potentially alcohol related accident in his Police vehicle. Thody drove off after hitting a guardrail causing several thousand dollars in damage to the vehicle.
Now, Thody is skirting the law again, apparently to avoid having to explain for one of his corrupt officers. On March 15, 2021, it was alleged that HPD Police Sergeant James Guzie had assaulted a female prisoner while she was in custody at the HPD Booking facility. Guzie was the supervisor on duty at the time and the booking facility was supervised by LT. Paul Cicero. Cicero had previously been the Major Crimes supervisor and was reassigned to booking after the "Deadpool" betting scandal had been revealed. As a sidenote, Cicero has now been reassigned to Patrol as the daytime Lieutenant.
Sergeant Guzie was arrested today on a charge of Assault 3rd.
Back to above the law Thody. One aspect of the Police Accountability bill passed last year was a section regulating Police Bodycam use. One section stated that "{Police accountability bill, Public Act 20-1 ( page 33) "not later than ninety-six hours following the recorded incident, whichever House Bill No. 6004 July Sp. Sess., Public Act No. 20-1 33 of 72 is earlier, such recording shall be disclosed, upon request, to the public, subject to the provisions of subsection (g) of this section"}.
Essentially, it states that body cam and other video footage of a Police misconduct assault MUST be released within 96 hours after requested by a member of the public. I requested the video in writing to HPD by e-mail dated April15, 2021 at 3:41 PM. As of today the video has not been released , even though Connecticut State Law requires its release and it is well over the 96 hour limit.
Shouldn't a Police Chief uphold the law rather than be above it? Is this Thody's version of transparency?
And you wonder why so many people hate the Police. they do it to themselves!
ReplyDeleteWhere’s the body-cam footage of the detective that struck a handcuffed prisoner? In that same video you can see a sergeant make a face and turn around as if he didn’t see what he just saw. Then they never reported using any force. The excessive force was later discovered during an audit of the video footage. Coverups are more common than shootings in Hartford.
ReplyDeleteHartford PD Has It!
Not an accurate comment. If your referencing A certain detective, Brookmans previously published articles show that the Use of force was documented. The issue then became an internal affairs investigation which showeed that Detective USED EXCESSIVE FORCE. The MAJOR issue is that this assault happened 2 full years ago and the case has been investigated by the department. But guess what? Nothing happened to that detective and he still works in the same division doing the same job. What a huge
Deleteliability factor. I hope he gets mad and hits me, cant wait for that lawsuit. Somebody should FOI the internal affairs documents to see how long this case has been sitting around.
The biggest reason why you continually have cover ups is because when they are uncovered you're lucky if the offender is punished accordingly! Very rarely do the people involved pay for their involvement.So why not cover for the people who know your dirty secrets!
ReplyDelete