All five New Haven, Connecticut police officers charged in connection with injuries that left Randy Cox paralyzed while in custody have pleaded not guilty.
They filed those allegations in their criminal case Wednesday. The State’s Attorney charged them each with two misdemeanor counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons.
Cox’s attorney, Jack O’Donnell, promised his client that he would attend all court hearings. Although he missed Wednesday’s plea hearing because it started ahead of schedule and ended quickly.
O’Donnell gave an update on Cox outside of court.
“He’s still paralyzed from the armpit down, he can’t do anything on his own,” O’Donnell said. “Her spirits from him are generally good considering the circumstances. He is disappointed that the police officers have only been charged with minor offences.”
Cox was injured on June 19 while riding in a police transport van. That van skidded to a halt, Cox slammed into the wall and hit his head. He was paralyzed that day.
On September 27, his family filed a $100 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and the five officers involved in his transportation.
On Monday, officers also filed a lawsuit in the case, citing American Medical Response, saying the EMTs failed to follow CT Spinal Trauma protocol.
They say AMR failed to apply manual stabilization and a cervical collar, and failed to stabilize Cox on a spinal board, among several other allegations.
In that federal case, Mayor Justin Elicker promised to negotiate with Cox’s family to bring justice to all. Those negotiations are scheduled for next month.
“There is a court-ordered mediation on February 9, I don’t expect it to be resolved then, but we are making substantial progress,” O’Donnell said.
The next criminal court appearance on the misdemeanor charges will be a virtual pretrial hearing on February 23.