Two ex-Ansonia police officers testified Tuesday that they thought supervisors at the department had it in for Officer Mustafa Salahuddin.
“I would see his reports get bounced, I would see him get overloaded with calls,” said Tom Swan, an Ansonia police officer from about 2000 to 2005.
“We were both subjected to what I call discrimination,” said John Martin, who now works as a police officer in Seymour.
The two ex-Ansonia lawmen made their statements while being questioned by Rob Serafinowicz, the attorney representing Salahuddin.
Salahuddin is accused of stealing a just-purchased garden hose from the department in 2008. He is on trial in Superior Court in Derby on a sixth-degree larceny charge.
Serafinowicz twice made a motion Tuesday to have Salahuddin acquitted of the charge. Judge Eddie Rodriguez, Jr. denied both motions.
The jury is expected to start deliberating the case Wednesday.
Thomas Swan
Swan was called to the witness stand by Serafinowicz in an attempt to show that Salahuddin was treated differently than other police officers.
Salahuddin is a black Muslim who lodged four complaints against his superior officers between 1993 and 2008. The history of complaints made him a target, his attorney maintains.
It’s an allegation Chief Kevin Hale and department leaders have denied for several years.
Swan first took the stand outside the presence of the jury. Since Swan’s testimony wasn’t directly related to the sixth-degree larceny charge, Judge Rodriguez heard Swan’s testimony before the jury.
He then decided which line of questioning would be allowed in the presence of the jury.
Swan said that Salahuddin’s reports would get nit-picked by supervisors and sent back for revision. He said a supervisor at the police department once told him “We have to be careful of Moose. He sued us once and won.”
Moose is Salahuddin’s nickname.
Judge Rodriguez did not allow the jury to hear the statement about the lawsuit, because the person who allegedly said it had no direct involvement with the case.
Judge Rodriguez did allow Swan to testify in front of the jury about tension he perceived between Salahuddin and Hale.
“When I first arrived at the police department, they seemed abnormally tense,” Swan said.
Swan said “Moose” was gregarious, known to “open up” to anyone.
“I did notice, as an outside observer, Chief Hale did tend to keep it short,” when talking to Salahuddin, Swan said.
Cross Examination
Gaetano’s questioning of Swan was succinct.
He confirmed that Swan, in his five-year tenure with the Ansonia Police Department, was the subject of six internal investigations, including two for allegations of excessive force and one for the alleged false arrest of a juvenile.
Hale was involved in each investigation.
“So you have animus toward Chief Hale, don’t you sir?” Gaetano asked.
“No,” Swan said.
“You have animus toward Lt. Cota?” Gaetano asked. Cota is the second-highest ranking officer in Ansonia and played a key role in the hose investigation.
“No,” Swan said.
Swan sued the police department in early 2009, claiming he was harassed by his superiors.
“The end result was a cash settlement under the heading of harassment,” Swan said of his lawsuit.
John Martin
Martin has been a member of the Seymour Police Department for about three years. Prior to that, he worked four years as a patrolman in Ansonia — plus another year-and-a-half as a radio dispatcher.
He said he’s known Salahuddin for about 10 years.
Martin, who is of Portuguese decent, did not offer many specific examples of how he thought Salahuddin was treated differently, but did say that Salahuddin was required to constantly rewrite reports.
“I was the subject of that myself,” Martin said.
Gaetano asked whether Martin held ill will toward the police chief.
Martin denied it. Gaetano then asked Martin whether he was friends with Salahuddin.
Martin said he is.
Salahuddin Talks
Salahuddin took the stand in his own defense Tuesday.
It marked the first time the officer, who is on administrative leave, has talked at length and in detail about what happened in the early morning hours of May 15, 2008, the time when his supervisors say he stole the garden hose.
Salahuddin conceded he’s the person in the video that was repeatedly shown in court.
However, he said he didn’t steal the hose. He used the much-discussed, newly-purchased, $24.99 green garden hose to prop open a door at the police department so that he could bring five boxes of “DARE” items to his car.
He said he then took the hose and put it on a shelf in the basement of the police department.
Salahuddin took exception to a written report and testimony given by state police Detective Anthony Buglione, the investigator who Hale brought in to handle the hose case.
“I believe he grossly misquoted me on several things,” Salahuddin said. “Most of what he said was inaccurate.”
Salahuddin also refuted testimony from dispatcher David Blackwell, who said Salahuddin told him he had taken the hose to a spot on Wakelee Avenue near Roma’s pizzeria to wash spilled coffee off the roof of his police car.
“Blackwell has a big mouth. I wouldn’t tell him anything,” Salahuddin said.
Salahuddin said he did spill coffee and that he did take it to a spot on Wakelee Avenue where there’s a spigot — but Salahuddin said he used a hose that was already at the location, not the hose from the police department.
Salahuddin also denied telling dispatcher Patricia Rowley that he “threw the hose up the stairs” after using it to prop open a door at the police department.
Inquiry At Nolan Field
Buglione, the state police detective, said he met with Salahuddin June 2 at 5:50 p.m. while Salahuddin was working an overtime assignment at Nolan Field.
The talk took place behind a dugout at the baseball field, Buglione said.
After introducing himself and his police partner, Buglione said he told Salahuddin why he was there.
“He was obviously a suspect because he had been identified by his supervisors in the videotape,” Buglione said.
Salahuddin said he used the hose to prop open a door for about five minutes, the detective testified.
However, the door in question has a computerized monitoring system. The system notes whenever the door is open for more than 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Buglione said Salahuddin became nervous after being told about the monitoring system.
“He seemed to be a little nervous and then he changed the time from five minutes to two minutes,” Buglione testified.
On the stand later Tuesday, Salahuddin denied this, saying he told the detective the door was open anywhere from two to five minutes.
Did Hale Hate Him?
Chief Hale took the witness stand for about 50 minutes Tuesday.
Serafinowicz asked Hale if he and Salahuddin saw things “eye to eye” at the police department.
“I thought we did,” Hale said.
Serafinowicz then asked why neither the chief nor any of his lieutenants talked to Salahuddin before bringing in the state police.
Hale said the crime went “beyond any relationship.”
Hale testified that he was in Cape Cod chaperoning his son’s class trip Thursday, May 15 when he received a call from Lt. Andrew Cota about the missing hose.
Hale said he called state police the next day, advising them an investigation may be warranted.
Hale watched surveillance video after arriving back in Ansonia. He described to the jury about what he saw on the surveillance video.
“I saw an officer, Officer Salahuddin, take his coat, with both hands and wrap it around an item and walk out of view with it,” Hale said. He added later, “That’s not behavior I feel is appropriate for a police officer.”
Serafinowicz repeatedly asked Hale why he called state police before seeing the video.
“I felt it was best that this matter be looked at by an organization other than the Ansonia Police Department,” Hale said.
Under questioning by Gaetano, Hale said the stolen item, or its value, doesn’t matter — it’s the fact something was stolen by a cop.
“The fact that it’s a garden hose is irrelevant, regardless of its value. We should expect more from police officers,” Hale said.
What To Expect Wednesday
Both sides rested their cases Tuesday. The jury is due back in court at 10 a.m.
At that time, they’ll likely hear closing arguments from both sides.
Gaetano is expected to highlight the video footage, coupled with what he characterized as conflicting statements Salahuddin gave to fellow employees and the state police.
Serafinowicz is expected to argue that the prosecution has failed to establish criminal intent — or that the hose even left the police department, since it was discovered in a storage box along side toilet paper about five days after it disappeared.
After the two lawyers give their closing arguments, Judge Rodriguez will give the jury their instructions — and the jury will deliberate shortly thereafter.
Salahuddin faces a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.
The following story was posted at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday:
Why invest all this time and energy investigating a police officer who allegedly stole a garden hose worth $24.99?
“Being a police officer, it is an integrity issue,” said state police Detective Anthony Buglione. “I understood why I was there.”
Buglione made his comments Tuesday from the witness stand in Superior Court in Derby, where Officer Mustafa Salahuddin is on trial on a charge of sixth-degree larceny.
Buglione was the lead investigator whose report led to the warrant for Salahuddin’s arrest.
Police say Salahuddin stole a hose from the department in the early hours of May 15, 2008.
Salahuddin maintains his innocence and says he was targeted by police department brass because he has a history of lodging complaints against his supervisors.
The prosecution rested its case against Salahuddin at 12:33 p.m.
At that point, Rob Serafinowicz, Salahuddin’s attorney, made a motion for Judge Eddie Rodriguez, Jr. to acquit his client of the criminal charge.
The state failed to prove intent and had failed to prove the hose in question ever left the walls of the Ansonia Police Department, Serafinowicz said.
Prosecutor Paul Gaetano countered that Salahuddin can be seen in a video at the spot where the hose was last seen. In addition, Salahuddin gave conflicting reports about his last contact with the hose, Gaetano said.
Rodriguez denied Serafinowicz’ request, saying the decision should be left up to the jury.
Testimony will continue in Superior Court at 2 p.m.
The defense is expected to call former Ansonia police Officer Tom Swan. He will testify, out of the jury’s presence, about a complaint he filed against his superiors at the police department, including police Chief Kevin Hale.
Serafinowicz is injecting Swan into the case as a way to undermine the credibility of Hale, who testified today for about 50 minutes.
Hale testified that he was in Cape Cod chaperoning his son’s class trip Thursday, May 15 when he received a call from Lt. Andrew Cota about the missing hose.
Hale said he called state police the next day, advising them an investigation may be warranted.
Hale saw the video after arriving back in Ansonia. He described to the jury about what he saw on the surveillance video.
“I saw an officer, Officer Salahuddin, take his coat, with both hands and wrap it around an item and walk out of view with it,” Hale said, adding later, “That’s not behavior I feel is appropriate for a police officer.”
Serafinowicz repeatedly asked Hale why he called state police before seeing the video.
“I felt it was best that this matter be looked at by an organizationother than the Ansonia Police Department,” Hale said.
Serafinowicz asked whether Hale had called in state police when another officer, identified as Kristen Hunt, was found to have left a private-duty post despite being paid to be there. The officer had apparently gone to the police department instead of remaining at her post at the Riverside apartments, Hale said.
The Hunt matter was handled through an internal affairs investigation within the department. She was docked pay and received a written warning. Sgt. Patrick Flynn was also disciplined in regard to the matter, Hale said.
Hale said the Hunt matter is a different case from the Salahuddin issue — because the Salahuddin case involves alleged criminal activity.
In addition, Hunt apparently admitted her part and did not try to “hide” anything, the chief said.
Serafinowicz countered by saying Hunt was given the opportunity to talk to her supervisors — something Salahuddin was not afforded, according to his attorney.
Under questioning by Gaetano, Hale said the stolen item, or its value, doesn’t matter — it’s the fact something was stolen by a cop.
“The fact that it’s a garden hose is irrelevant, regardless of itsvalue. We should expect more from police officers,” Hale said.
This story will be updated later today
