By Phil Helsel
New Haven Register
WEST HAVEN — A convict who was paralyzed when he was shot by a West Haven police officer in 2005 following a wild car chase has filed a lawsuit against the officer who shot him and the city, alleging excessive force and police brutality.
State prosecutors have cleared West Haven Officer Jonathan Suraci, a four-year veteran of the force, of any wrongdoing when he fired a single shot at Joseph Palermo, 42, in a dark New Haven driveway following a Dec. 29, 2005, car chase into the city.
But Palermo filed a federal lawsuit May 17, accusing Suraci of shooting him in the back without cause, and also claiming that Suraci and other officer beat him as he lay on the ground bleeding.
The shooting left Palermo paralyzed from the waist down. He is serving a 10-year prison sentence at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.
“I don’t think you should shoot an unarmed man, period,” said Palermo’s attorney, Chris DeMarco of New Haven. “Even assuming that he was reaching toward his waist, he was shot dead square in the back.”
A trial date has tentatively been scheduled for February 2009, according to court documents.
Police Chief Ronald Quagliani declined to comment Tuesday, and a police spokesman said the department typically doesn’t talk publicly about pending litigation. After Palermo was shot, Quagliani said that Suraci only fired because Palermo was reaching for his waist and the officer feared he had a gun.
New Haven State’s Attorney Michael Dearington found in December that Suraci had “no choice but to defend himself by firing.”
The chase began that day after police tried to arrest Palermo for a carjacking in Milford and an unrelated chase in West Haven that had been called off for safety reasons. Palermo fled, eventually crashing his van on Mechanic Street in New Haven, and Suraci shot Palermo as he fled into an alley, according to police reports.
Police have said that in the weeks prior to the chase that ended with Palermo being shot, he had allegedly told confidential informants that he would not be taken alive if police tried to arrest him again; DeMarco Tuesday called those alleged statements “convenient.”
Palermo’s suit marks the second time Suraci has been sued for alleged brutality since 2004, when Henry Briggs of New Haven accused Suraci, and officers Louis Matteo and David Perez, of beating him following a road-rage incident.
A federal jury in Bridgeport ruled in favor of the officers Jan. 19, and cleared them of any wrongdoing.