Connecticut’s new Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo answered questions Friday in a virtual forum on how he will handle police misconduct in his new role.
“There’s a perception out there that when we look at these cases a state’s attorney has a side on these things that is the furthest thing from the truth,” Colangelo said.
The conversation comes as there’s a nationwide call for a change in police misconduct cases to be handled by the state attorneys general rather than state’s prosecuting attorneys.
“We don’t have a side it’s not like we are for the police against the victim, for the victim or against the police,” Colangelo said.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong releasing a statement Friday saying in part: “We are not in a position yet to react to this specific proposal, but we know this office must address head-on our broken systems of power that have led to oppression and violence against people of color, and particularly African-Americans.”
“Whenever I speak to the victim’s families in these cases it’s just that we’re looking at the facts,” Colangelo said.
Colangelo says in Connecticut, police misconduct cases are handled by a state’s attorney that is not in the jurisdiction where the officer works and State Police are investigated by the Division of Criminal Justice.
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Colangelo says new change requires state’s attorneys to complete their reports within 120 days of getting a completed file from the investigator.
Colangelo says he’s committed to completing timely police misconduct cases and without a conflict of interest.
“That’s not how we could do our jobs as prosecutors nor is it how I want to see my prosecutors doing their jobs in Connecticut,” Colangelo said.
