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A Connecticut judge on Friday dismissed criminal charges against three current and former New Haven police officers who were accused of mistreating prisoner Richard \u201cRandy\u201d Cox<\/a> after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022.<\/p>\n Judge David Zagaja dropped the cases against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting them a probation program that allows charges to be erased from defendants’ records, saying their conduct was not malicious. Two other officers, Betsy Segui and Ronald Pressley, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and received no jail time.<\/p>\n Cox, 40, was left paralyzed from the chest down<\/a> on June 19, 2022, when the police van, which had no seat belts, braked hard to avoid an accident, sending him head-first into a metal partition while his hands were cuffed behind his back. He had been arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, which were later dismissed.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t move. I\u2019m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,\u201d Cox said in the van minutes after being injured, according to police video. He later was found to have broken his neck.<\/p>\n Diaz, who was driving the van, brought Cox to the police department, where officers mocked Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox out of the van and around the police station before placing him in a holding cell before paramedics brought him to a hospital.<\/p>\n Before pulling him out of the van, Lavandier told Cox to move his leg and sit up, according to an internal affairs investigation report.<\/a> Cox says \u201cI can\u2019t move\u201d and Lavandier says \u201cYou\u2019re not even trying.\u201d<\/p>\n New Haven State’s Attorney John P. Doyle Jr.’s office said prosecutors and Cox did not object to the charges being dismissed.<\/p>\n Defense lawyers said that while the officers were sympathetic to what happened to Cox, they did not cause his injuries or make them worse. The three officers whose cases were dismissed were scheduled to go on trial next month.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t think that there was sufficient evidence to prove her guilt or any wrongdoing,\u201d said Lavandier’s attorney, Dan Ford. “This is a negotiated settlement that avoids the risk of having go through the emotional toll of a trial.\u201d<\/p>\n Rivera’s lawyer, Raymond Hassett, called the decision to charge the officers \u201cunjust and misplaced.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe actions of the Police Chief and City Mayor in targeting the officers were a misguided effort to deflect attention from the police department shortcomings in managing the department and ensuring proper protocols were in place and followed,\u201d Hassett said in a statement.<\/p>\n Attorneys for Cox and Diaz did not immediately return phone and email messages Friday. Cox’s lawyer, Louis Rubano, has said Cox and his family hoped the criminal cases would end quickly with plea bargains.<\/p>\n New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said city officials disagreed with the judge’s decision to dismiss the charges.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened to Randy was tragic and awful,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n The case drew outrage from civil rights advocates including the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore<\/a>. Cox is Black, while all five officers who were arrested are Black or Hispanic. Gray, who also was Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a Baltimore police van.<\/p>\n The case also led to reforms at the New Haven police department<\/a> as well as a statewide seat belt requirement for prisoners.<\/p>\n