New Haven cops blame medics for man’s injuries, documents show

NEW HAVEN — The five New Haven police officers named in the Richard “Randy” Cox lawsuit have filed a motion in federal court seeking to put some of the blame for Cox’s injuries on the EMTs who treated him immediately after he was hurt in police custody.

The filing claims that the two emergency medical technicians from American Medical Response of Connecticut who treated Cox after he was injured failed to stabilize Cox and properly assess his injuries.

The officers also claim the EMTs “misrepresented” Cox’s ability to move on his own and that the EMTs “failed to intervene in the field and direct police officers not to move Richard Cox from the cell to a stretcher under circumstances where they knew or should have known it was unreasonable to do so,” the filing states.

American Medical Response did not immediately comment on the motion in the suit Saturday morning.

Cox was left paralyzed in June when he was thrown against the inside of a police van after the vehicle stopped short. The driver of the van, New Haven Police Officer Oscar Diaz, hit the brakes to avoid a collision, according to city officials and his attorney.

The van was not equipped with seatbelts, and the sudden stop caused Cox to fly forward, smashing his head inside the van. When he complained of his injury to Diaz, the officer stopped to check on him but did not call for an ambulance, video from the incident shows.

When the van arrived at a holding facility, officers dragged Cox from the back of the van by his ankles when he told them he was unable to move, taking him to a cell in a wheelchair. He was eventually taken to the hospital.

Cox’s family filed the lawsuit against the police officers involved and the city of New Haven in September, alleging negligence. The family is seeking $100 million, according to the family’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who also represented the families of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin. All five of the officers have been criminally charged in the June 19 incident and remain on administrative leave from the New Haven Police Department.

The city has since begun negotiations to settle the suit with Cox’s legal team.

In a separate motion also filed Friday, Diaz’s attorney argued that blame should fall on the driver of the car that ran a stop sign, causing Diaz to suddenly stop the van.

The driver of that vehicle has never been identified.

The filing notes that the near-crash was captured “on a security camera located on a commercial building” at a nearby corner, Diaz’s lawyer wrote. That footage has not been made public.

“Officer Diaz denies all allegations of negligence that have been asserted against him,” Diaz’s attorney, James N. Tallberg, wrote in the motion. “If the plaintiffs’ allegations of negligence are proven, however, then all or some of the plaintiff ’s injuries, damages or losses were proximately caused by the operator of the Unidentified Vehicle, who caused Officer Diaz to make an abrupt stop in order to avoid the collision.”