'Some Open Northern Sh**' After the April 1997 shooting of Malik Jones and protests against it, there were T-shirts and bumper stickers in East Haven touting support for Flodquist and the East Haven Police Department. There was a huge rally of support on the East Haven green. There were civil rights marches into East Haven that were met by racial epithets shouted by some East Haven residents that conjured memories of the venom of the old South. There was the attitude of open defiance, of in-your-face, we-don't-care-what-you- think-or-do from whites...In photo Mayor Maturo. [MORE] From [HERE] and [HERE] A town in Connecticut isn't liable in the 1997 shooting of a black man by a white police officer because evidence failed to show widespread discriminatory conduct that could support an inference that it was known and tolerated by superiors, a federal appeals court in New York ruled Wednesday. The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals spares the town of East Haven another trial stemming from the shooting of 21-year-old Malik Jones. It was the third time Emma Jones, his mother went to court seeking compensation from East Haven and several of its police officers, including former Officer Robert Flodquist, who fired the fatal shot.
In 2003, a federal jury in Hartford awarded Jones $2.5 million in punitive damages, but that was thrown out four years later by U.S. District Court Judge Alvin W. Thompson. The Court held that municipalities are immune from punitive damages. In 2010, a jury awarded Jones $900,000. Yesterday that award was overturned.
The lawsuit had alleged that the town's custom, policy or usage of deliberate indifference to the rights of black people caused the killing of Jones in violation of his constitutional rights.
The unarmed Jones was shot by an officer after a car chase. The officer said he fired his weapon because he believed Jones was trying to run him over, but the jury disagreed and found that the car began moving only after the officer broke the driver's-side window of the car and shot him. Trial testimony showed that East Haven's population in 2000 was 1.4 percent black and that the police force in much of the 1990s was all white.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court in Manhattan said it concluded that trial evidence was insufficient to prove the town routinely discriminated because it failed to show a pattern of widespread abusive conduct among officers that would have been known and tolerated by superiors.
"Whether that is because there is no real discrimination or indifference, or because plaintiff has simply failed to discover and present evidence of it, is beyond the competence of this court," the appeals court wrote. "Our ruling assesses only the sufficiency of the evidence presented at the trial — not the true facts."
It said the evidence "unquestionably showed instances of reprehensible and at times illegal and unconstitutional conduct by individual officers" but wasn't sufficient to impose liability on the municipality.
The 2nd Circuit noted that it was aware of reports about misconduct of East Haven officers, including a report last December that a Justice Department investigation concluded that the police department had "engaged in widespread biased policing, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and the use of excessive force." It also referenced the FBI's January arrest of four East Haven police officers on charges of conspiracy, false arrest, excessive force and obstruction of justice for their mistreatment of Hispanic residents in the town.
David N. Rosen, Emma Jones' lawyer, said it's "fair to say that she's disappointed but doesn't regret for a moment having fought for something that she believes in deeply."
He said his client's lawsuit on her son's behalf "has paved the way for all of these continuing efforts to get this department under control."
A decision on whether to appeal was pending, he added.
East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. said in a statement that the ruling "marks the end of an unhappy, costly chapter in East Haven's history."
He added: "This entire case has been tragic for our police department, our taxpayers and the Jones family. This chapter is now closed."
The decision is a legal victory for East Haven. But the court's language is unlikely to give comfort to a municipal government trying to dispel a perception that its town has been hostile to members of racial minorities.
Earlier this year, the town and its police force were battered by allegations of racial bias following a yearslong civil rights investigation by theU.S. Department of Justice. The government accused the police department of bias, illegal searches and the use of excessive force.
Following the investigation, the federal government sued the town and charged four police officers with conspiracy, false arrest, excessive force and obstruction of justice in connection with the mistreatment of Hispanics.
In a footnote to its decision, the appeals court said Wednesday that its reversal in the Malik Jones suit should not be construed as an expression of its views of East Haven or its police department. Rather, the court said the decision reflects only its view that Emma Jones' suit failed to present sufficient evidence to establish liability by the town of East Haven for the shooting by one of its police officers.
Elsewhere in the decision, the court wrote that evidence associated with the suit, when construed most favorably to Emma Jones, "unquestionably showed instances of reprehensible and at times illegal and unconstitutional conduct by individual officers of the East Haven Police Department."
But to establish municipal liability, the court said that Emma Jones was required — but failed — to show that police misconduct was so widespread in East Haven that the town was aware of it, condoned it, or at least tolerated it.
The death of Malik Jones set up years of at times contentious discussion of race and led to the enactment in Connecticut of a law prohibiting racial profiling. Jones was shot by Officer Robert Flodquist shortly after 6 p.m. on April 14, 1997, following a police pursuit that began in East Haven and ended in New Haven.