They were known as Miller’s Boys, police officers who worked the 4-to-midnight shift, patrolling the largely working-class town of East Haven, Conn., including the small but growing Hispanic community that has spread out in recent years from New Haven.

The officers were more than well known in that community; according to residents and federal authorities, they were feared. They stopped and detained people, particularly immigrants, without reason, federal prosecutors said, sometimes slapping, hitting or kicking them when they were handcuffed, and once smashing a man’s head into a wall. They followed and arrested residents, including a local priest, who tried to document their behavior.

 

They rooted through stores looking for damning security videotapes of how they had treated some of their targets, described by one of them on a police radio as having “drifted to this country on rafts made of chicken wings.”

 

And after it became known that the Justice Department was investigating the department, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, a picture of a rat appeared on a police union bulletin board, and in the locker room, an ominous note: “You know what we do with snitches?”

 

On Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Sgt. John Miller and three of his officers — David Cari, Dennis Spaulding and Jason Zullo — on charges of conspiracy, false arrest, excessive force and obstruction of justice over what the indictment described as years of mistreatment of individuals, especially Hispanics, and efforts to cover it up.

 

Following on the heels of a scathing Justice Department report in December that found the East Haven police had engaged in widespread “biased policing, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and the use of excessive force,” the indictment portrayed a harrowing picture of arbitrary justice for Hispanic residents.

 

“There is no place for excessive force in a police station or on the streets,” David B. Fein, the United States attorney for Connecticut, said in a news conference on Tuesday. “There is no place for false statements in police reports.”

 

“No person is above the law, and nobody — even a person arrested for a crime — is beneath its protection,” he added, saying there could be more arrests.

 

Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of the F.B.I. office in New York, called the officers “a cancerous cadre that routinely deprived East Haven residents of their civil rights.”

 

The misconduct, according to prosecutors, reached to the highest ranks of the department and the police union. A high-ranking officer described as “Co-Conspirator No.1” — apparently the police chief, Leonard Gallo — made several calls to the supervisor of the priest, the Rev. James Manship of St. Rose of Lima Church, asking that he be moved out of his parish, the indictment said. The same commander also barred members of East Haven’s police commission, a supervisory body that was trying to investigate the complaints, from entering the department without his permission, but later rescinded the order.

 

Police union leaders also inquired about hiring a private investigator to follow the priest, the indictment said, though it was not clear if they followed through.

 

Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. of East Haven, who served from 1997 to 2007 and was then returned to office in 2011, said he stood by the police force. When he took office again, Mr. Maturo reinstated Chief Gallo, who had been put on paid leave by the previous mayor after the Justice Department began its investigation.

 

“I’m still very surprised, and it’s a sickening feeling to have your officers arrested, but nevertheless they’re innocent until proven guilty,” Mr. Maturo said.

 

As for larger problems in the department, he said, “I have confidence in all the men and women of our East Haven Police Department, from top to bottom.”

 

Each officer was charged with conspiracy against rights, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, and at least one other charge. Officers Spaulding and Cari were charged with the most serious count, obstruction, which carries a maximum of 20 years.

 

All four pleaded not guilty in Federal District Court in Bridgeport on Tuesday afternoon, while about two dozen friends, family and fellow union members and police officers looked on. All were released on bail except for Officer Zullo, whose paperwork had not yet been completed.

 

Donald Cretella, a lawyer for Sergeant Miller, said the sergeant would be vindicated. “Nothing in the indictment is a surprise to us,” Mr. Cretella said, “and it doesn’t appear that Sergeant Miller did anything illegal. He’s a 16-year veteran police officer. He’s been decorated, he’s a wonderful officer, and hopefully we’ll address all this, and he can get on with his life.”

 

Chief Gallo did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Fred Brow, chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners, would not comment on any particular officer, but said he had no quarrel with the overall picture the indictment and the December report painted of the department and its dealings with Hispanic residents. And he said it was irresponsible for the mayor to have returned Chief Gallo to his job.

 

“It appears that there was just a total lack of leadership and supervision, and that has to start at the top,” he said.

 

The New Haven area has long been a place where immigration issues have played out in public life. New Haven has been welcoming of Hispanic residents, but some other communities have been less so. The area’s immigrant community has been centered in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood, and now reaches over the border into East Haven.

 

The issue gained particular visibility in February 2009, when Father Manship began investigating accusations by his parishioners of harassment and abuse by the East Haven police. His clash with the police — he was arrested and accused of disorderly conduct while videotaping officers, but the local prosecutor dropped the case — led to a class-action lawsuit against East Haven by Yale Law School’s Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, as well as the investigations by the Justice Department.

 

The accusations against the officers center on their conduct at or outside businesses frequented by Hispanics like Los Amigos grocery, La Bamba restaurant and bar and My Country Store, and their treatment of suspects in custody.

 

Sergeant Miller, who is also president of the department’s police union, is accused of assaulting a suspect being restrained by two officers and then reprimanding one of them for reporting it. When another officer used excessive force in his presence, he took no action to investigate, reprimand or discipline the officer, the indictment said.

 

Outside Guti’z Bakery on Main Street, a customer, Mayra Mendoza, said she had seen police officers sitting in a parking lot across the street, watching customers come and go from the bakery, taking down license plate numbers. “They wanted to cause problems,” said Ms. Mendoza, who lives in East Haven. She said the police needed “to respect Spanish people more.”

 

“We come here to work and have a family. We pay taxes, we pay mortgages,” she added. “This is our city. I’m a citizen here; my kids are citizens here.”

 

Father Manship said he was grateful the United States attorney’s office took the complaints so seriously. Still, he said, “It’s not a happy day.”

 

Noah Rosenberg and Kirk Semple contributed reporting.

 

via East Haven, Conn., Police Officers Accused of Mistreating Latinos – NYTimes.com.