The president of the Ansonia NAACP called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the handling of the Mustafa Salahuddin investigation.
“The NAACP is now reaching out to the Department of Justice to find out, ‘Was protocol followed during these entire proceedings?’” Greg Johnson, Ansonia NAACP president said during a press conference Thursday on the Derby Green. “Did the chief follow protocols?”
The “chief” is Kevin Hale, top cop at the Ansonia Police Department.
Salahuddin is an Ansonia police officer who was charged in 2008 with stealing a garden hose from the police department. Hale brought in the state police to investigate the incident. State police charged Salahuddin with sixth-degree larceny.
A jury found Salahuddin not guilty Wednesday.
Salahuddin and Johnson said Hale used the garden hose incident as a way to drive out Salahuddin, who was a critic of the department.
Hale, as recently as Thursday morning, said he handled the situation properly.
Johnson said Scot X. Esdaile, president of the state NAACP, will be contacting the Department of Justice.
Johnson held the press conference with Salahuddin and Salahuddin’s lawyer, Rob Serafinowicz.
Johnson complained that the Ansonia Board of Police Commissioners are not responsive and that Hale favors some Ansonia police officers over others.
As proof, Johnson pointed to testimony Hale gave during the Salahuddin trial.
Under questioning by Serafinowicz, Hale told the jury that an Ansonia police officer identified in court as Kristen Hunt, was disciplined by the department for leaving an overtime post at the Riverside apartments, a federally-subsidized housing complex in the city.
The money to fund the overtime assignment was supposed to come from the city’s housing authority. Hunt left the post and went to the police department, Hale said on the stand.
An internal affairs investigation was conducted. Hunt was docked pay and received a written warning.
Johnson questioned why the state police were not brought to Ansonia to investigate that incident. Johnson wondered whether abandoning the post constituted stealing from the feds, since the money to fund the overtime post was coming from a federal agency.
Hale testified that the two cases were different. He also said that Hunt admitted her mistake.
Serafinowicz said Wednesday Salahuddin would be filing a civil lawsuit against the chief for the actions taken against Salahuddin.
When asked whether the state police should also been investigated, Serafinowicz wasn’t sure.
“I’m not going to speculate as to that right now. I’m not going to have an opinion to that because it’s almost like having your house be on fire and you worry about putting out one small area,” Serafinowicz said. “You don’t worry about the small things when the major problem still exitsts — and that’s Chief Hale.”
Serafinowicz also criticized the city’s police commission, saying they “rubber stamp” anything the chief wants.
The chief’s handling of the Salahuddin investigation is mentioned in a Feb. 19 decision from the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.
That commission dismissed a complaint Salahuddin lodged against the city.
Both Salahuddin’s complaint and the commission’s decision are posted at the end of this article.
The complaint was over an internal investigation that launched a year after Salahuddin was arrested. It was separate from the criminal investigation and was also done by state police.
The commission found that the city was within its right to launch the internal investigation.
In addition, the chief did the right thing by bringing in the state police to investigate the garden hose incident, the commission’s decision reads.
“That it chose to utilize a 3rd party outside agency to conduct that investigation, further affirms its proactive attempts to avoid any issue of bias, retaliation or other improper influence on the outcome of the review,” the decision reads.
Salahuddin, meanwhile, said Thursday he’s still contemplating whether to continue his career in law enforcement.
Documents
The first document below is the decision from the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities on a complaint lodged against Ansonia by Officer Salahuddin.
The second document is Salahuddin’s complaint.
