2 Cox Case Cops Avoid Prison, Pay $15

By Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — New Haven government agreed to pay $45 million for its role in paralyzing Richard “Randy” Cox. Two cops arrested for their roles paid $15 apiece.

The two cops — now-retired Officer Ronald Pressley and now-fired Sgt. Betsy Segui — each paid $15 in court “costs” associated with separate plea deals they took in their respective criminal cases earlier this month stemming from paralyzing injuries that Cox suffered while in police custody more than two years ago.

The plea deals allow Segui and Pressley to avoid jail time; the three other officers arrested on this matter turned down plea deals and are now taking their respective criminal cases to trial.

Pressley, Segui, and Officers Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavendier, and Luis Rivera were all arrested by state police on Nov. 28, 2022, on misdemeanor charges of second-degree reckless endangerment and “cruelty to persons” because of how they handled Cox’s transport and detention on June 19, 2022. Segui, Diaz, Lavendier, and Rivera were also all fired by the police commission; Pressley retired before the commission could hear the chief’s recommendation that he be fired. (Diaz subsequently got his local police job back, after state arbitrators overturned his termination.)

To resolve a separate civil lawsuit brought by Cox and his family, the city agreed in June 2023 to pay $45 million — $30 million of which was covered by the city’s insurance, and the remainder paid from city coffers.

On Nov. 6, Pressley agreed to a deal with state prosecutors that saw him plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of second-degree reckless endangerment; state prosecutors then nolled the second count, regarding “cruelty to persons,” meaning he was not convicted of that charge.

Pressley’s plea deal also does not include any incarceration: instead, it includes 60 days in jail with the execution suspended, as well as six months of conditional discharge. The conditions of that discharge are that he not commit any new crimes and that he pay $15 in court “costs” affiliated with his conviction. (“Costs” are different than “fines;” the latter is a punishment related to a conviction, while the former pertains to administrative court fees related to a misdemeanor conviction.)

On Tuesday, Segui agreed to an identical plea deal as Pressley to resolve her own criminal case.

Segui pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment in the second degree. She had her “cruelty to persons” count nolled. She received a sentence of 60 days in jail, execution suspended, with six months of conditional discharge. And the conditions of that discharge include not committing any new crimes and paying $15 in court “costs at the clerk’s office.

Meanwhile, in separate court hearings on Tuesday, the three other arrested officers — Diaz, Lavandier, and Rivera — each rejected state plea deals and decided to take their criminal cases to trial.

Click here to read the New Haven Register’s reporting about these various cases as they came before a state judge on Tuesday, including interviews with Diaz’s, Lavandier’s, and Rivera’s attorneys about how they each think their clients will prevail at trial.

All of this comes more than three years after police arrested Cox, who was then 36 years old, on weapons charges without incident at a Lilac Street block party on June 19, 2022. Cox was brought to the police detention center at 1 Union Ave. after having suffered a debilitating injury in a police transport van. Instead of taking seriously Cox’s protestations that he was severely hurt and needed immediate medical attention, Segui, the supervisor at the detention center that night, and other officers thought he was faking because he was drunk. They dragged him out of the van, booked him in a wheelchair, and then dragged him into a cell. The case sparked national outrage.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.