The Randy Cox case so far has gotten five officers kicked out of the New Haven police department. Now, two more officers have been fired from the department for their role in handling Cox when he’d been paralyzed in the back of a police van, according to The Associated Press.
Officer Oscar Diaz, the driver of the van and Sgt. Betsy Segui, the detention area supervisor, were fired from the police department following a 5-0 vote from the New Haven police commissioners. The two are accused of misconduct and lack of compassion in how they treated Cox after he’d been paralyzed in the back of a police van during transit. In the June 2022 incident, the driver hit the brakes to avoid hitting another vehicle but as a result, Cox flew headfirst into the metal wall inside the van and injured his neck.
The officers involved are seen on body camera footage ignoring Cox’s pleas for help and accusing him of faking when he said he couldn’t move. An internal affairs report found the driver of the van was Officer Diaz and the one mocking Cox for being drunk was Sgt. Segui.
Read more from AP News:
As Cox pleaded for help in the back of the van, Diaz kept driving for more than three minutes before pulling over to check on him after having heard Cox repeatedly say he couldn’t move and thought he broke his neck, according to the internal affairs investigation report.
Diaz told Cox he had called for an ambulance, which he asked to meet him at the police station. Diaz then drove Cox to the station. Jacobson has said that was a violation of department rules because Diaz should have waited for the ambulance when he pulled over.
At the police station, Officer Jocelyn Lavandier dragged Cox to the back of the van by his feet, and Diaz and Pressley grabbed his shirt as he collapsed to the ground. When Cox told them he thought he had cracked his neck, Segui responded, “You ain’t crack nothing. You just drank too much,” according to the report.
The five other officers involved have left the department. Four were fired and the last one resigned before they had the chance to fire him, per the report. However, they all are in pending cases facing criminal charges of cruelty and reckless endangerment.
Cox received $45 million in settlement from the city, which vowed after the incident to make sure all suspects in transit wear seatbelts.