EAST HAVEN, Conn. -- Federal law enforcement officials have confirmed the arrest Tuesday morning of four East Haven police officers in connection with a civil rights investigation.
The four officers taken into custody Tuesday morning by the FBI are Sgt. John Miller and officers David Cari, Dennis Spaulding and Jason Zullo.
The four are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport Tuesday afternoon. An 11 a.m. press conference has also been announced.
Miller and Cari were arrested at police headquarters, where they were working the midnight shift, police said. Spaulding, who is on administrative leave, and Zullo were arrested at their homes.
East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo said he learned of the arrested at 5:50 a.m. when Chief Leonard Gallo called him. The FBI notified the department's deputy chief at 4:10 a.m. that they were on the way to make the arrestes, Maturo said.
"It's unfortunate that the arrests were made within our police department," Maturo said. "Our officers are innocent until proven guilty. We stand behind our officers and the police department. I want the citizens to know our men and women will do the best they can on our streets in light of what happened. It's a tough day for all in East Haven, especially at the police department."
An investigation of East Haven police by the U.S. Department of Justice termed the department "profoundly broken" and said a pattern of discrimination exists, particularly against Latinos. The discrimination is so deeply rooted that it will take years to change, the department's top civil rights attorney said in announcing the results of the investigation last month.
A grand jury has been hearing evidence for nearly a year on allegations stemming from the civil rights investigation. Sources have said that six to 15 officers could face federal criminal charges, although only four were charged Tuesday. No additional arrests were expected Tuesday.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Roy Austin Jr. said last month that federal authorities hope to work with East Haven officials, but if necessary they will go to federal court to force the town to change its policies.
Austin called the two-year investigation into claims that the department violated the civil rights of Latinos by unfairly targeting them in traffic stops "one of the more challenging investigations to obtain information" the department has ever encountered.
Austin cited Gallo as "creating a hostile work environment" for anyone who cooperated with the investigation and attempting to "erect a blue wall of silence" around the investigation. He also described seeing the reference to "rats within the PD" on a bulletin board in the department.
"This is a department that is profoundly broken in many ways," Austin said last month. "This department systematically deprived Latinos of their constitutional rights."
Among the findings released in the scathing 23-page report:
The number of Latinos stopped by the department, particularly officers working the 4 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. shift, was extraordinarily high. Among some officers, nearly 50 percent of their traffic stops over two years involved Latino drivers. For other officers, more than 33 percent of their traffic stops involved Latinos. The town's Latino population is 10 percent.
Latino drivers are subject to much harsher treatment once they are stopped. . The report said that in many instances their cars were towed and the drivers forced to post a surety bond.
The Justice Department accuses East Haven police of deliberately targeting Latinos by following them and waiting for them to commit a motor vehicle violation, or by attempting to find a defect with their license plate and by citing them for speeding without cause. In one case, an officer looked up insurance information on a car before stopping it.
The department's use of immigration laws is "haphazard" and used primarily to "harass and intimidate the Latino community." The report said that on numerous instances East Haven police contacted federal Homeland Security officials and asked for an "immigration hold" on Latinos who had been arrested on traffic violations, not felonies.
The civil rights investigation started two years ago after the Rev. James Manship was arrested while trying to videotape the arrest of a Latino man inside the My Country Store on Main Street. That arrest led to the filing of a federal civil rights lawsuit prepared with the assistance of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale University. Nine plaintiffs alleged racial profiling and the use of excessive force by police.
Manship said the findings of the federal investigation vindicate what many Latinos already knew about the department.
"This is not about one or two bad officers. It's about the culture of a department that people cannot have confidence in," Manship said. "If the federal government cannot have an impact here then we are really in trouble".
Manship made it clear that East Haven is off to a bad start by bringing back Gallo as chief. Gallo had been placed on administrative leave last April but was immediately reinstated when Maturo took office after narrowly defeating former Mayor April Capone Almon in November.
"I am astounded that the mayor reappointed the chief who presided over the department when all of this was happening," Manship said.
Although the civil rights investigation has been completed, the criminal case, which is about a year old, is ongoing, U.S. Attorney David Fein said last month.
At least 24 police officers had been subpoenaed to appear before the federal grand jury sitting in Bridgeport, according to a source familiar with the proceedings. It is unclear if those officers are targets of the investigation or witnesses who will be asked about the conduct of others.
As recently as early December, witnesses were still being called before the grand jury. Before Gallo returned to duty, FBI agents showed up at the police station and searched his office, which had been locked since he was put on leave.
Copyright 2012 - The Hartford Courant, Conn.
