Meriden police officer Evan Cossette resigned from the police department Tuesday, a day after a federal jury found him guilty of using unreasonable force on a prisoner and then obstructing justice in an effort to cover up his actions.
Cossette submitted a letter of resignation Tuesday, Caroline Beitman, the city’s personnel director, said in an e-mail.
Cossette, son of Meriden Police Chief Jeffry Cossette, had been on administrative leave since a federal grand jury indicted him in November.
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for less than three hours after hearing closing arguments from defense attorney Raymond Hassett and federal prosecutors David E. Novick and Paul H. McConnell on Monday. They reached their verdict about 3 p.m.
The case, Novick said in his closing argument, was not about the difficult job police officers must perform or second-guessing a police officer’s split-second decisions.
“This case is about holding police officers, with whom we entrust with our safety and our liberty, to a high standard,” Novick said.
Jurors found that Cossette’s actions the evening of May 1, 2010, violated the civil rights of Pedro Temich, an undocumented immigrant who officers had arrested after he crashed his unregistered car into another car while driving drunk. Cossette shoved Temich, who was handcuffed and intoxicated, backward into a jail cell, causing him to fall and strike his head on a concrete bench. Temich suffered a deep gash to the back of his head.
The incident was captured on a video camera in the jail cell. The video was the prime piece of evidence in the case.
In his closing argument, Hassett urged jurors to place themselves in the shoes of the police officer and to evaluate what they were seeing from his perspective. He argued that Temich had been violent and aggressive and that Cossette believed Temich was going to attack him when he shoved him into the cell.
Cossette testified Friday that he pushed Temich because Temich became aggressive. The “firm shove,” Cossette testified, put distance between him and Temich. “I was fearful of what he was going to do,” Cossette testified. “I was surprised when he fell.”
–Courant staff report