The lawyer for Ansonia police Officer Mustafa Salahuddin said his client plans to sue police Chief Kevin Hale for false arrest and malicious prosecution now that his client has been cleared of wrongdoing in connection to a stolen garden hose.
“This isn’t the end. Not by far,” Rob Serafinowicz said Wednesday outside Superior Court in Derby, where a jury had just declared Salahuddin not guilty of sixth-degree larceny.
He said Salahuddin will drop a complaint he has pending against the department with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.
Note: The Valley Indy learned Thursday that the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities dismissed Salahuddin’s complaint Feb. 18.
Serafinowicz also said the city will receive a bill for Salahuddin’s legal fees — about $100,000.
“I’ll have the bill to them by next week,” he said.
After an investigation by state police, Salahuddin was charged with stealing a 75-foot, $24.99 garden hose from the Ansonia Police Department in May 2008.
His misdemeanor trial started Monday and concluded Wednesday afternoon.
The Verdict
A six-person jury left the court room and started deliberating the case at 2:55 p.m.
At 3:31 p.m., Judge Eddie Rodriguez, Jr. read a note from the jury saying they had reached a verdict.
The jury then entered the court, where the jury forewoman announced the “not guilty” verdict.
The case was over at 3:40 p.m.
Salahuddin sighed and hugged his attorney. Ansonia NAACP president Greg Johnson clapped once. Tears streamed down Salahuddin’s wife’s face.
“God bless you,” Salahuddin said, looking toward the jury.
Reaction
Salahuddin, with his wife, his two young daughters and his father, spoke to reporters after the not guilty verdict was announced.
He said he was targeted by his superior officers because he had a history of complaining about work conditions.
“This was orchestrated because ‘He talks too much, he’s got a big mouth, he’s talking around rookies, he’s telling people to leave,’” Salahuddin said, referring to himself.
Click the play button for the full interview.
Greg Johnson, the president of the Ansonia NAACP, said his organization plans to hold a Salahuddin-related press conference at 1 p.m. Thursday on the Derby Green.
“The NAACP stood beside Mustafa and never wavered in regard to his innocence,” Johnson said. “We’ll continue to move forward and hold leadership in the Ansonia Police Department as well as in the City of Ansonia accountable for decisions that are made that are affecting the taxpayers of the city.”
Closing Arguments
The jury’s verdict came Wednesday after lengthy closing statements by prosecutor Paul Gaetano, followed by Serafinowicz.
Gaetano told jurors to examine surveillance video from the night the hose was stolen. It showed Salahuddin stealing the hose, Gaetano said.
Salahuddin testified that he used the hose — still coiled, in its original packaging — to prop open an exit door, then put it on a shelf in the department’s basement.
However, Gaetano said the computerized monitoring system showed Salhuddin used his key card to open the door.
The data showed Salahuddin did not have time to prop open a door to move DARE materials to a car, the prosecutor said.
Furthermore, Gaetano said Salahuddin gave differing accounts to co-workers and state police as to where he put the hose after using it to prop open a door.
The accounts differed because Salahuddin stole the hose, Gaetano said. The officer, once the heat was on, returned the hose to the department by hiding it in a box, Gaetano said.
However, Serafinowicz said the prosecution failed to prove the hose had ever left the building. He urged the jurors to use their common sense, saying that the case wasn’t about the garden hose — it was about “the abuse of power.”
Serafinowicz said Salhuddin’s supervisors wanted him out of the department. Accusing him of theft was a way to get what they wanted.
“This case is about right and wrong. What’s wrong in this case is people in power putting the screws to someone they didn’t like,” Serafinowicz said.
Gaetano countered by telling the jury Serafinowicz was attempting to “muddy the waters” by making the larceny case about the police department. The prosecutor pointed out that Chief Hale called in an outside agency, the state police, to conduct the Salahuddin investigation.
“It is not the state of Connecticut versus Chief Hale,” Gaetano said.
After the verdict, Salahuddin, who faced a maximum of 90 days in jail if convicted, said he never thought of plea bargaining his case.
“I felt betrayed by my department and I felt betrayed by a part of the system,” Salahuddin said. “But another part of the system vindicated me. God bless them.”
