New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Police release footage of spitting incident involving state Senate leader, officer
NORWALK — Surveillance footage released by the Norwalk Police Department on Monday shows a Norwalk officer interrupting a discussion between state Sen. Bob Duff and two other officers with a spitting gesture on July 24.
The captured moment depicts a key part of the incident in which the state Senate majority leader claims he was “bullied” by Norwalk police for his role in passing the police accountability bill in July.
The recently released footage, which has no sound and is about 35 minutes in length, shows Duff, and officers Mark Suda and Corey Vento speaking just outside a side door at the Norwalk Police Department.
Duff, leaning against a railing with his legs crossed, appears to be having a discussion with Suda and Vento when officer Mike Silva and an unidentified officer are shown coming outside.
The footage shows the unidentified officer looking in Duff’s direction as Silva makes a spitting gesture near his own feet. The pair are then shown walking back inside.
Duff said he was invited to speak to the union’s executive board on that Friday afternoon, two days after he hosted union leaders in his home to discuss the new legislation, which bans chokeholds and creates a decertification process that can end the hiring of officers fired from one department for law enforcement jobs in other Connecticut
towns. It will also hold officers responsible for reporting fellow officers who violate standards.
On his arrival that day, Duff claimed he was greeted by officers using expletives demanding to know what he was doing there. Then, while discussing the legislation with the union leaders, others — rank-andfile members — entered the room in what Duff said was a show of force.
“After the meeting ended, I was asked by an officer not on the executive board for a few minutes of my time. As we were talking, the single door opened and I saw one of your officers, and about twenty other officers behind him. He then looked at me in a menacing manner, and spit at me. Yes, spit at me,” Duff said in an Aug. 20 letter to the Norwalk Police Union President David O’Connor.
O’Connor admitted some officers were allowed into the meeting to ask “pointed” questions about the bill, but said the meeting was “cordial” in nature.
“Right at the beginning of meeting, I told everyone to be respectful,” O’Connor said on Tuesday.
Duff also claimed that, as he drove away from the department that day, about 30 officers came outside and looked “as if they were going to surround my car.” He further claimed the video doesn’t show the true picture of what happened.
“Whether that was their intention or not, I don’t know, but it appeared to be another bullying and intimidation tactic,” Duff said in his letter to O’Connor.
Surveillance footage shows at least 13 police officers — including Silva — filing out of the Norwalk Police Department to stare down Duff as he drives out of the department’s parking lot that day. In the video, Sgt. Salvatore Calise is shown directing the officers to remain on the sidewalk.
Moments later, the officers are seen walking back inside.
In an additional statement late Tuesday, O’Connor said of the video, “It is unfortunate that a misperception of a recent meeting with our officers has generated such division in our community. We hope that this footage helps to clarify some of these harmful misperceptions.”
“Our meeting with Senator Duff was not contentious, despite statements to the contrary,” the statement continues. “In fact, our meeting was cordial . ... No officer spit at Sen. Duff. After the meeting (as seen in the footage) an officer did make a spitting gesture on the ground on his way back in the building. He did not spit at Senator Duff as is made clear by the footage.”
O’Connor also said Duff left the parking lot safely and unobstructed.
“Let’s all temper our emotions during a time the public relies on leaders to forge solutions on their behalf,” he said in the statement. “It’s time for everyone to work together and check their egos at the door on behalf of sound public safety and protecting our citizens.”
Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik, who is investigating Duff’s complaints about the officers’ behavior, sat down with the state senator for a two-hour meeting last week. Though Duff called the meeting “frank and honest,” he said little was resolved.
Following the meeting, Norwalk’s police union voted unanimously to endorse a full slate Republican candidates running for the state legislature, including Ellie Kousidis, who is running against Duff.
Amid the fallout from the incident, local clergy members have called for a meeting with Kulhawik and Mayor Harry Rilling to discuss steps the city and the department are taking to ensure police accountability.