Welcome to New London: Lawyer up

Mayor Finizio's Executive Order 004, issued with some fanfare Dec. 6, starts out with some happy language about New London being a diverse place, with people of a lot of different ethnic and religious and racial backgrounds.

And then it gets right to the point: "The New London Police Department shall not inquire into the immigration status of individuals … except when that status pertains directly to a criminal investigation."

Did Police Chief Margaret Ackley miss all of the news stories and commentary about the mayor's new orders? Did no one give her a copy?

One wonders, because it looks like she ignored it when she picked up the phone Jan. 26 and called federal immigration officials to inquire about the immigration status of a man killed in New London eight and a half years ago.

The chief's call was not made as part of an investigation into a crime. Instead, it appears she was trying to limit the damages her department might face in a civil lawsuit over the man's shooting death.

It could be that the chief might use as an excuse the exact wording of the mayor's executive order prohibiting immigration investigations, since it refers to individuals police "come in contact with."

But, really, isn't the harm the same, whether the person is alive or dead?

Of course, the police chief probably doesn't worry much about punishment for violating the mayor's order. If anything, he might offer her another raise.

I sent the chief an email Thursday asking for comment about her immigration investigation, but she didn't respond.

More worrisome than Ackely's possible violation of the mayor's executive order is the federal lawsuit her phone call triggered.

Robert Reardon, lawyer for the estate of the man killed in September 2003 - by someone who practically called police to tell them he was going to do it - learned about Ackley's phone call after the Connecticut Superior Court civil trial, in which he is suing city police, had started.

He promptly filed a $10 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Haven accusing Ackley and the federal officials she contacted of a "conspiracy to violate civil rights of plaintiffs because they are immigrants."

The federal lawsuit claims Ackley conspired with the immigration authorities to break the law and violate the constitutional rights of his clients, denying them equal protection under the law and fair access to the courts.

The chief and the federal officials "engaged in a conspiracy to improperly and illegally investigate the immigration status of a murder victim who was killed eight and a half years ago for no legitimate purpose other than to defend a civil lawsuit and in so doing have abused their power as law enforcement officials and have engaged in an abuse of prosecutorial discretion," the lawsuit says.

Indeed, when someone from Reardon's office called the federal office to ask about the same thing Chief Ackley had inquired about, they hung up, the lawsuit says.

This is apparently the first lawsuit claiming discrimination by city officials since Mayor Finizio took office. Some others have been threatened by NAACP officials who called the mayor arrogant after meeting with him to complain about allegations of drugs planted by police on a black man and the mayor's firing of the first black firefighter hired by the city in more than in 30 years.

I hate to think of what the legal fees of defending against all these complaints are going to contribute to the city's unfolding budget crisis.

This is the opinion of David Collins.