By William Kaempffer
New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN — The FBI has launched a preliminary investigation into potential civil rights violations during the arrest of a man in the city’s Temple Street courtyard over the weekend.
A spokesman for the New Haven Police Department stated in a press release that the Federal Bureau of Investigation informed police that agents had begun a “preliminary investigation” into an incident already being scrutinized by police Internal Affairs.
A message left for the FBI was not immediately returned.
New Haven police Lt. Anthony Duff, head of IA, stated Wednesday that agents visited the Police Department and reported a civil rights investigation had been started into the arrest of a Bridgeport man in the city’s entertainment district. Witnesses took pictures of a police sergeant with his boot on the neck of the man; the photos were published on the New Haven Independent website.
Duff said IA and the FBI will conduct parallel but cooperative investigations.
The chief ordered an IA investigation after the sergeant ordered the arrest of a woman who used her iPhone to record the man’s arrest. The sergeant reportedly stated that the recording was evidence of the man resisting arrest. The woman refused to turn over the phone, and instead stuffed it into her bra.
Duff said police would look into whether the arrest of the woman, an Ansonia resident, violated department regulations and also into the circumstances of the arrest that she was recording.
Department rules make it clear that civilians, within reasonable constraints, have a right to record officers doing their jobs.
Duff said the FBI informed the department that its initial focus was on whether police violated the civil rights of the man seen in pictures on the ground with an officer stepping on his neck and another attempting to restrain him.
An official said the “photos were disturbing.”
Horace Rawlings, 24, of Bridgeport, was arrested early Saturday on charges of interfering with police and disorderly conduct, police said. He was released on bail and was arrested the following day on similar charges by different officers in New Haven.
“The investigations are separate, but we are cooperating,” Duff said.
He said there was no indication that the agents would look into the arrest of the Ansonia woman, but Duff said the federal probe could travel in any direction.
Duff Tuesday made a public appeal for anyone who captured images or footage of Saturday’s incident to contact police.
“Our intention is to get as much evidence, and specifically video footage, of the incident from different angles,” he said. “We may come across some additional witnesses, as well.”
The police inquiry involves whether Sgt. Chris Rubino violated department general orders when he arrested the woman behind Pulse Night Club after she filmed Rawlings’ arrest and then refused to surrender her phone. The incident was first reported in the New Haven Independent.
Police seized the phone as evidence supporting Rawlings’ arrest. Police Chief Dean Esserman ordered an IA probe Monday to determine if Rubino violated department regulations in doing so.
After several incidents of people being arrested for filming police, the department crafted a general order -- and trained all officers -- affirming the public has a right to film officers doing their job, and that doing so “in and of itself does not constitute a crime.”
“If a person video recording police activity is arrested, the officer must articulate clearly the factual basis for any arrest in his or her case and arrest reports,” the order reads.
Officer Arpad Tolnay, president of the police union, contended police did that. The sergeant viewed the video, concluded that it was evidence detailing the arrest of the man and seized the phone.
The arrested woman, Jennifer Gondola, stated she went to Pulse Night Club for a drink with friends and, when they left, came upon an tussle outside involving police. She took out her iPhone and started filming. Other people did, too.
She said Rubino noticed her filming and ordered her to stop and later demanded the phone as evidence.
She refused and put it in her bra. She was arrested a moment later and a female officer retrieved the iPhone.
A spokesman said the U.S. attorney’s office had no comment on the FBI probe.
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