HARTFORD — A newly released Connecticut State Police report says there is no evidence that three troopers retaliated against a protester at a sobriety checkpoint by filing bogus charges against him.
State police released the report Wednesday evening in response to public records laws complaints filed by The Associated Press and the Journal Inquirer newspaper.
The investigation centered on the 2015 encounter in West Hartford between protester Michael Picard and the officers. The officers wrote Picard infraction tickets, but the state later dismissed the charges.
Picard says the troopers made up bogus charges. He alleges in a lawsuit that they illegally seized his camera and legally carried handgun.
The investigation report says the infractions were warranted, because there were reports Picard was waving his handgun and was illegally standing on a highway ramp.
