The Hartford State’s Attorney’s office has determined an East Hartford police officer was justified in his use of force when he used a stun gun on a suspect during an incident in 2014. The suspect died following the incident.
Twenty-three-year-old Jose Maldonado, of Manchester, died after being shocked with a stun gun during a struggle with officers at the East Hartford Police Department on April 13, 2014.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined his cause of death to be cardiac arrhythmia, following precordial electrical shock.
On April 13, 2014, Maldonado was arrested and taken to police headquarters following the report of a dispute at 181 Nutmeg Lane in East Hartford. Police said he damaged a car with two adults and three children inside. Broken glass injured one of the adults, police said.
Maldonado fought with police while they were arresting him and was charged with three counts of risk of injury to a minor, third degree assault, second-degree criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and interfering with or resisting arrest, police said.
Police said Maldonado began to fight with officers again at police headquarters, prompting Officer Jason Kaplan to shoot him with a stun gun, police said.
According to state police, Maldonado seemed to suffer medical distress” after the stun gun was used. EMS provided medical care while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Maldonado was taken by ambulance to Hartford Hospital, where he died shortly after being admitted.
The Hartford State’s Attorney and the Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crime Squad were called in to investigate.
During the investigation they spoke to Maldonado’s grandmother, who told them a few weeks before the incident Maldonado complained of heart palpitations, but he never went to the doctor and did not bring it up again.
Findings released Wednesday say the state’s attorney determined that Kaplan had acted reasonably to defend himself and his fellow officers by deploying the stun gun on a combative suspect. A stun gun is not considered deadly force, and based on his training Kaplan had no reason to believe using the stun gun would cause Maldonado serious injury or death.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut released a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“This decision is a miscarriage of justice. It is a travesty that Jose Maldonado’s family had to wait three years for a perfunctory investigation to produce this inadequate response to their loved one’s death at the hands of police," David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU-CT said in a statement.
"Today’s report is the latest symptom of a broken system for holding police accountable to communities. Nobody, including the police, should be above the law. Yet once again, we have seen prosecutors allow police in Connecticut to kill an unarmed man of color with impunity. And once again, it took years for prosecutors to release a perfunctory report into someone’s death at the hands of police. This case shows, like too many others, that Connecticut’s system for policing the police is broken," he added.
McGuire called on legislators to take steps toward creating an independent body to investigate police uses of force and misconduct.
"The sad truth is that there are more repercussions for someone who runs an unlicensed barbershop in Connecticut than there are for police who break their vows to protect and serve our communities. We look forward to working to prevent other families from experiencing what Jose Maldonado’s family is going through,” McGuire said.
