The mother of an Oxford High School student killed in a March 2012 car crash is suing the Town of Seymour for some $15 million, the woman’s lawyer said Wednesday.
Fifteen-year-old Brandon Giordano was a passenger in a car being driven by Eric Ramirez, who sped away from a Seymour police officer on Route 67 who tried to stop Ramirez for having illegal “ground effects” lights on his car.
Ramirez’ Mustang crashed a short time later in Oxford, killing Brandon.
The lawsuit, filed by Giordano’s mother, Angela Borrelli, claims police should not have chased Ramirez.
The town’s response, according to court documents?
Giordano should have seen the crash coming.
By getting into Ramirez’s car voluntarily, the town’s lawyer says in court documents, “Brandon Giordano failed to act as would a reasonable prudent person under the circumstances then and there availing.”
The Crash
Ramirez was driving Giordano and another friend, 16-year-old Dion Major, to Oxford late on the night of March 9, 2012 in his 2000 Ford Mustang when Seymour police Officer Anthony Renaldi saw the illegal lights under Ramirez’s car and tried to stop him on Route 67 in Seymour.
Ramirez did not stop.
Instead, he sped up the road into Oxford, at one point going 91 mph in a 30 mph zone, and also turned off his car’s lights in an effort to elude the pursuing police officer.
He eventually lost control of his car while trying to turn onto Old State Road 67.
The car then hit a grassy embankment that caused the vehicle to vault nearly 60 feet through the air before hitting the side of the Precision Glass and Mirror building.
The car came to rest on its roof.
Giordano, riding in the back seat, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Ramirez and Major were hospitalized for their injuries.
Ramirez was arrested and eventually pleaded no contest to charges of negligent homicide and engaging police in pursuit.
A judge sentenced him to serve seven months behind bars, despite pleas from Borrelli, to spare her son’s friend jail time.
The Lawsuit
Borrelli filed the lawsuit against the town and three police officers — Renaldi, Michael Jasmin, and Sgt. William King — Feb. 25.
Renaldi was hired by the Fairfield Police Department last October.
Jasmin and King are still on the force in Seymour.
The suit says the trio acted negligently and disregarded the department’s rules regarding police pursuits.
Police officers are allowed to pursue suspects across town lines, according to a state police policy on pursuits. The policy applies to all police officers in Connecticut.
However, if the suspect refuses to stop, police officers must weigh whether chasing them is worth the risk.
In making that decision, the officer must consider several factors, including:
- Road, weather, and environmental conditions
- Population density and vehicular and pedestrian traffic
- Whether the identity of the occupants is known and immediate apprehension is not necessary to protect the public
- The relative performance capabilities of the pursuit vehicle and the vehicle being pursued
- The seriousness of the offense
An internal investigation made public more than a year after the crash cleared the cops involved of wrongdoing.
But the lawsuit alleges the officers knew that Giordano was a passenger in Ramirez’s car and that he would “be placed in imminent danger should they decide to initiate a high speed pursuit.”
Renaldi pursued the car “when he knew or should have known in the exercise of reasonable care that it was dangerous to do so,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also claims Renaldi and Jasmin failed to inform the police dispatcher adequately during the chase, and that King, the shift supervisor, should have called off the pursuit.
Article continues after the lawsuit.
Seymour Responds
Thomas R. Gerarde, a lawyer representing the town, denied the lawsuit’s allegations regarding the chase in a May 6 court filing. He wrote that Ramirez is the person to blame for the wreck.
And because Ramirez had been cited several times for driving his car illegally, Gerarde says, Giordano shouldn’t have gotten in his car that night.
“Brandon Giordano voluntarily entered the 2000 Mustang Convertible operated by Eric Ramirez when he knew or should have known that Eric Ramirez had a history of illegal and negligent operation of his 2000 Mustang,” Gerarde wrote.
In another filing, he argues Borrelli should have known better, as well.
“She allowed her son, Brandon Giordano, to drive with (Ramirez), when she knew or should have known that would likely result in death or serious injury,” Gerarde wrote.
The lawyer argues that the doctrine of contributory negligence bars Borrelli from recovering damages.
Basically, the law prohibits people suing others if their own negligence is greater than those they want to sue.
The town’s filings also cite a state statute on governmental immunity in arguing the town can’t be sued because the officers were exercising discretion afforded them by law.
The Valley Indy left a message at Gerarde’s office Wednesday (July 16).
Article continues after the document.
Seymour Responds by ValleyIndyDotOrg
Lawyer: Town’s Claims ‘Very Bogus’
Borrelli’s lawyer, Steven Errante, said Wednesday the case is still in its early stages, and the town hasn’t made any offers to settle. He anticipates questioning the officers involved at depositions in the coming months.
He said he hasn’t yet calculated a precise amount of damages to request, but given Giordano’s young age and bright future, “probably our claim is going to be in the range of about $15 million.”
He said the town’s claims of immunity will be defeated because the department violated its rules regarding chases.
“You’re only supposed to have a chase when there’s a serious crime being committed, not for minor misdemeanors or traffic violations,” Errante said. “(Renaldi) should have never started this chase.”
He also dismissed an internal investigation performed by Lt. Paul Satkowski (now the department’s deputy chief) that exonerated Renaldi.
In particular, he cited Renaldi’s “adamant” claims that he radioed the police station to say he was breaking off the pursuit before seeing the crash in the distance and speeding back up.
Satkowski’s investigation found that “the reported radio transmission recordings terminating the pursuit were never captured” on the tapes at the police department.
Renaldi speculated his radio call might have been “stepped on” by another officer. Satkowski’s report noted the department was at the time of the crash in the midst of upgrading its communication system because of poor radio transmission problems.
So Satkowski could not “definitively say that the communication system” at the police station was working properly, he concluded.
Click here to read more about the internal investigation.
Errante said the explanation “seems very bogus.”
“They’re trying to spin it as best they can to protect themselves and protect the town,” Errante said. “The purpose of (taking) depositions (from the officers involved) will be to take what they’ve written and show that it’s not accurate and not consistent with what independent witnesses observed that night.”
Dispatch Recordings
Dispatch recordings available online at Radio Reference give some insight into what happened the night of the crash.
The first call heard on the dispatch recordings was at about 11:46 p.m., when Renaldi said he was turning onto Old State Road in Oxford.
“We turned off 67 onto Old State,” Renaldi said. “OK he’s up here. He’s crashed. Send a 106. It’s on its back.”
106 is police code for ambulance.
There was no initial call about a pursuit on the archived radio dispatches. That doesn’t mean Renaldi didn’t call into dispatch — it just didn’t register on the public scanner.
A few minutes after Renaldi called for an ambulance, a dispatcher is heard calling for mutual aid to respond to the crash.
Click play on the video below to listen to the recordings. The times in the video reflect the times listed on Radio Reference.
