NL police officer Nott pleads guilty to striking man in handcuffs
She stays on the job and gets 3 years of probation
Middletown — New London police Officer Deana M. Nott pleaded guilty Thursday in Superior Court to striking a handcuffed man in the face in June 2016 and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Judge Maureen T. Keegan told Nott she had “tarnished the badge” and imposed the sentence after Nott pleaded guilty to criminal deprivation of rights by force, a Class A misdemeanor. The judge added that she hopes Nott will “re-shine the badge,” and that whatever further time Nott has on the job is “impeccable and without complaint.”
Nott, an 18-year veteran of the police department, was suspended for seven days following an internal investigation of the incident but has otherwise remained on the street while the case was pending. She issued an apology as a condition of the plea deal she accepted. Standing before the judge in a green flowered skirt, white blouse and sandals, she said that in retrospect, she realized that she shouldn’t have punched 37-year-old Adonis Smith in the face, and that the report she submitted on the incident was incomplete.
“I’m sorry to Mr. Smith, my department and the community,” Nott said. “Nothing like this will ever happen again.”
Nott is required to serve the full three years of probation, pay a $1,000 fine, perform 50 hours of community service and successfully complete courses in anger management, de-escalation of the use of force and proper use of electronic shock weapons. Any unreasonable use of force, on or off the job, would be considered a violation of her probation and subject her to penalties over and beyond the usual consequences, according to prosecutor Kevin Shay.
Police Chief Peter Reichard said after Nott’s arrest in January that the department considers the matter closed. The plea agreement allows Nott to stay on the job and carry a gun and does not affect her certification as a police officer, according to her attorney, Elliot B. Specter.
Smith, who is incarcerated in Pennsylvania on unrelated drug charges, did not seek medical treatment for a cut he sustained to his lip during the arrest and did not want to press charges, according to the state. Nott and two other officers had responded to 17 Grand St. for a domestic disturbance between Smith and his mother’s boyfriend over money.
The prosecutor said Smith had been contacted in prison about the plea offer and did not respond. Smith had been “an extraordinarily difficult person to take into custody,” Shay said. Smith had been subdued and was in the back of the police cruiser, posing no threat, when Nott struck him in the face with a closed fist, he said.
“It’s our contention that it really was ‘street justice,’” Shay said. It was Nott’s intention to punish Smith, he said.
Every citizen and criminal defendant is entitled to a process under the Constitution, and the problem with street justice is that it’s “a classic violation of the equal protection rights of the person,” he said.
Shay said it was the first time his office had used the deprivation of rights charge, and that if Smith had been injured, the charge could have been used for a felony conviction. Nott contended that Smith had suffered the minor cut to his lip prior to being struck.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Nott placed Smith under arrest. Officer Christopher Bunkley arrived as Nott and Officer Patricia Kehler were struggling to get Smith’s hands behind his back to handcuff him as the three of them came down the front steps of the house. Bunkley drew his Taser and pointed it at Smith’s chest, warning him he would be Tased if he didn’t stop struggling. Nott and Kehler got Smith handcuffed and Bunkley holstered his Taser and helped Nott escort Smith to his cruiser.
Bunkley said he and Nott escorted Smith to Bunkley’s cruiser, with Smith continuing to be verbally abusive. Bunkley pushed Smith into the rear passenger seat of the cruiser, and Nott went around to the driver’s side, opened the driver’s side rear door and pulled Smith into the car. Bunkley said he walked around to the driver’s side and stood behind Nott. He said he was unaware that Nott had struck Smith. He said Nott said Smith had tried to spit on her.
Nott’s attorney said the incident, which was captured on video via the cruiser’s rear seat camera, happened “within a very short period of time,” and that Nott thought Smith, who had already spit once, might be spitting again when he turned his head. His comments were not intended to imply that Nott’s actions were justified, Specter added after a short sidebar discussion with the judge and prosecutor.
Nott left the courtroom with her husband, city firefighter Joseph Nott, and a few others. A large group of friends, family and fellow police officers had turned out to support her at her arraignment, and Specter said that in 35 years of representing police officers, he had never had so many people from the police and community come to him to express support for somebody. Nott has performed many good deeds over the years, including taking in children she encountered on the job whose mothers were unable to care for them. In December, she was first on the scene of a fatal stabbing in New London and said the victim, Travon Brown, called her by her nickname, “Notts,” and identified his killer to her in a dying declaration.
The judge said what makes these cases so troublesome is that it makes things hard for all of the good police officers on the job. She said Nott has work to do to regain the trust of the community and that she hopes Nott can one day successfully apply for a pardon for her conviction.
“I’ve been told you are the daughter of a police officer,” Keegan said to Nott. “Is that true?” Nott responded, “Yes.” “So was I,” the judge said. Nott’s father, the late Joseph San Juan Sr., was a lieutenant with the Waterford Police Department. Her brother, Joseph San Juan Jr. is a sergeant with the East Lyme Police Department.