A Seymour police officer was cleared of wrongdoing late last year in connection with a fatal motor vehicle accident in Oxford that killed 15-year-old Brandon Giordano, documents made public Monday (April 1) revealed.
Lt. Paul Satkowski, the second in command at the Seymour Police Department, conducted an investigation into the March 2012 incident — in which Officer Anthony Renaldi said he briefly pursued a car driven by Oxford resident Eric Ramirez on Route 67 moments before Ramirez crashed the car into a building on Old State Road.
The crash killed Ramirez’ 15-year-old passenger, Brandon Giordano, an Oxford High School student.
Satkowski’s report is dated Dec. 26, 2012. The Valley Indy requested a copy via the state’s Freedom of Information Act March 7.
Satkowski’s report concludes that “it is my finding that no administrative action be taken against Officer Anthony Renaldi as I could not find any violation of policy or procedure surrounding this incident.”
A message seeking comment was sent to Renaldi Monday afternoon.
Satkowski on Monday declined to comment extensively beyond what was summarized in his report, saying the case was closed and no further action would be taken.
Police Chief Michael Metzler also declined to comment, and referred reporters to Satkowski’s report, which is embedded at the bottom of this article.
Meanwhile, Giordano’s mother, Angela Borrelli, told the Valley Indy Monday evening that she is pursuing a lawsuit against the town in connection to Renaldi’s chase.
Background
The accident occurred late on the night of March 9, 2012.
Giordano, a 15-year-old Oxford resident and popular member of the town’s high school football team, was a passenger in a car driven by Eric Ramirez, then 19. Also in the car was Dion Major, a 16-year-old.
The three were returning to Oxford from New Haven at 11:48 p.m. that night when Renaldi observed that Ramirez’s car, a 2000 Ford Mustang convertible, had colored LED lights attached to its undercarriage, according to an arrest warrant filed by state police against Ramirez about six months after the accident.
When Renaldi tried to pull over the Mustang for the equipment violation, Ramirez sped off up Route 67 toward Oxford at high speed — at least 91 mph, according to state police analysis of surveillance footage from a gas station the car drove by.
After following the car for about two minutes, Renaldi broke off the high-speed pursuit, judging it too dangerous because Ramirez allegedly turned off the lights on his car.
But as he was slowing down his cruiser and turning off his emergency lights and sirens, Renaldi told Satkowski, he saw “heavy” brake lights in the distance, and thinking it might be the Mustang or another vehicle that could provide information, he reactivated his lights and sirens and continued on Route 67 toward Oxford.
Renaldi then met a state trooper who had also seen the speeding Mustang.
Moments later, Renaldi and the trooper located the vehicle laying upside down in front of a building on Old State Road 67 in Oxford.
Ramirez and Major were extricated from the car and taken to Waterbury Hospital for treatment of serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
Giordano was pronounced dead at the scene.
Internal Investigation
After Ramirez’s arrest in the case last September — on a single count of misconduct with a motor vehicle, a felony, in addition to charges of reckless driving, engaging police in pursuit, and two equipment violations — Seymour Police Chief Michael Metzler directed Satkowski to “review the entire incident and some possible ‘inconsistencies’” with Renaldi’s involvement, according to the report released Monday.
The charges against Ramirez are still pending at Superior Court in Derby. He is scheduled to appear in the case April 25.
A message was left with Ramirez’s lawyer, Tara Knight, Monday afternoon.
Satkowski’s probe concluded that Renaldi “was within his legal rights” to try to stop Ramirez’s car and that “he followed the Uniform Statewide Pursuit Policy as well as the Seymour Police Department policy on handling pursuits.”
According to state police policy on police pursuits, officers are allowed to pursue suspects across town lines. The policy applies to all police officers in Connecticut.
However, if the suspect refuses to stop, police officers must weigh whether a chase is worth the risk, taking into consideration factors like conditions, traffic, the seriousness of the offense, and “whether the identity of the occupants is known and immediate apprehension is not necessary to protect the public.”
“According to Officer Renaldi’s testimony he took the weather, road conditions, speed, traffic and risk element into consideration in deciding whether or not to pursue said vehicle,” Satkowski wrote.
Satkowski also reviewed the “possible discrepancy” of whether or not Renaldi “actually broke off the pursuit as he stated in his police report.”
Renaldi said he radioed the dispatcher that he was breaking off his pursuit of Ramirez, but Satkowski’s report found that “the reported radio transmission recordings terminating the pursuit were never captured” on tape at the police department.
In addition, a witness interviewed by state police during the probe of the accident signed a sworn statement saying he saw a police vehicle with its emergency lights on traveling behind Ramirez’s car in the area of Tommy K’s Plaza and Rolando’s Restaurant, the area where Renaldi said he broke off the chase.
Article continues after a map showing the general location where Renaldi first saw Ramirez’s car, where he said he broke the pursuit off temporarily, and where Ramirez crashed.
Radio Problems
Satkowski listened to tapes of recorded audio transmissions several times in an effort to reconcile the possible discrepancy, he wrote in his report, and concluded “it is reasonable that (the witness) briefly observed Officer Renaldi in the process of deactivating his lights and sirens to terminate the pursuit but because he was traveling in the opposite direction he was focused on the traffic and never observed Officer Renaldi reactive his lights and sirens.”
Further, Satkowski said that on the tapes of the radio transmissions, he could hear Renaldi’s vehicle accelerate loudly as he spoke, and also hear his sirens activated.
Satkowski concluded the engine noise corroborated Renaldi’s testimony that he had slowed his vehicle down while beginning to terminate his pursuit of Ramirez’s before seeing the brake lights in the distance and speeding back up.
“If it was a continuous pursuit it is my finding that you would not hear the heavy acceleration of the vehicle’s engine,” Satkowski wrote. “The engine would already be at a steady rate of speed if he was continuously pursuing the vehicle.”
With respect to the Police Department never receiving word via radio from Renaldi that he was breaking off the chase, Satkowski said that Renaldi was “adamant” that he radioed the station but speculated the call could have been “stepped over” by another officer.
Satkowski also noted in the report that many officers have complained of radio transmission problems and that the department was in the midst of a $500,000 upgrade to its communication system “because of poor radio transmission problems, costly repair bills and the unreliable and antiquated system” in the Police Department’s dispatch center.
In fact, on the night of the accident, the report said, the department’s communications were being handled through a “temporary dispatch center” outside the police station’s records department.
“Therefore, I cannot definitively say that the communication system was working properly on the night of March 9, 2012 when Officer Renaldi called in to police dispatch that he was terminating his pursuit,” Satkowski wrote. “There is a possibility that the system had a momentary failure and did not capture his transmission when he states he was terminating the pursuit.”
Satkowski also wrote that while interviewing Officer Kevin Miceli, who was working the dispatch center at the time of the crash, said he recalled at one point during the incident that Renaldi called something into dispatch “but he could not hear exactly what he was saying because his transmission was faint and he was possibly being ‘stepped over’ by the ‘Hotline’ radio system” with state police.
Mother Speaks Out
Giordano’s mother, Angela Borrelli, said Monday evening that she wasn’t surprised the internal investigation exonerated Renaldi.
She also said that she is pursuing legal action against the town of Seymour in connection to the case.
“Am I happy with the outcome? Absolutely not,” Borrelli said. “That’s the whole reason there’s an impending lawsuit. I expected this result to come out. There’s always going to be some sort of excuse.”
While she said she knows the crash wasn’t Renaldi’s fault exclusively, Borrelli said the crash wouldn’t have occurred if not for his pursuit of Ramirez.
“There are two people responsible for my son’s death, and that would be the officer and the driver,” Borrelli said. “I don’t care what the internal investigation says.”
Still, she said, even if she won a lawsuit against the town, “It doesn’t replace what happened, it doesn’t bring him back.”
Beyond legal action, Borrelli said she may advocate for revisions to laws governing police pursuits.
She said she also hopes Ramirez will visit schools to warn others against making the same mistakes he did.
Borrelli’s lawyer could not be reached for comment late Monday.
Decorated Officer
Renaldi, a Seymour native, was hired by the town’s police department in November 2010.
At the time Metzler, the police chief, said Renaldi, formerly a Southbury police officer, was a “perfect candidate” and a “home run.”
In September 2011 he played a role in nabbing an alleged serial burglar after spotting a suspect on what he recognized as a stolen bike on South Main Street.
Renaldi was honored by the department last May as part of the Police Department’s annual awards ceremony.
He was also commended by the Seymour-Oxford Rotary Club at a “civic recognition” dinner held last month in Oxford.
