NEW HAVEN — Sgt. Betsy Segui was likely "untruthful" and "inconsistent" when she told investigators she couldn't recall if she was told Randy Cox had fallen and possibly injured the night he ended up paralyzed while in police custody, according to an internal affairs report.

Segui and officers Oscar Diaz, Jovelyn Lavandier, Ronald Pressley and Luis Rivera were arrested in November on charges of cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment in connection with their handling of Cox after he was thrown in the back of a police transport van when it stopped short on June 19, 2022. All five have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The five officers were suspended days after the incident and remain on paid leave except Pressley, who retired earlier this year.

New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said he is recommending Segui, Diaz, Lavandier and Rivera be fired based on the internal affairs investigation's findings.

The department's use of force instructor Lt. Jason Rentkowicz concluded based on incident reports and video that the officers' "actions appeared to be reasonable to complete a lawful objective of moving a person from one place to another and there was no other force option other than the escort," according to the 70-page internal affairs report obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

Cox, who was interviewed months later by internal affairs investigators, offered a different perspective. Cox cried, but didn't wish to amend his comments regarding the recorded statement he gave state police who were conducting a criminal investigation into the officers, the report stated.

"When asked if he had any comments he wanted to add, he stated he wished to see the officers fired and unable to get their pensions, stating 'I hope that it's some kind of justice, you know? Not just with the courts, but with you guys (internal affairs), that's it.'"

The internal affairs report details what transpired at the police station after Cox arrived, still awkwardly wedged between the floor and the seat of the van and unable to move. The officers felt Cox was drunk and "faking" it, with Lavandier at one point saying he was fine because he "blew her a kiss," the report stated.

"You can pretend if you want, but at some point you have to tell (EMTs) what's really wrong with you," Segui told investigators she said to Cox. She also said she and others were "joking with him" that "we know this is about the accident and a lawsuit," the report stated. She recalled to investigators that Cox replied, "'I wouldn't lie, I wouldn't lie,' but he was smiling and winking at them," according to the report.

The city and the officers are now facing a $100 million federal lawsuit from Cox's family on claims he was permanently disabled after he was thrown in the transport van, which had no seat belts and then mishandled by officers that likely aggravated his injuries, according to court documents.

Segui and others failed to either wear or activate their body-worn cameras — one of several policies that were violated that night, according to the report. All of the officers involved who remain on the police force were required to be interviewed as part of the internal affairs process. Pressley did not agree to an interview, the report said.

'He didn't want to die there'

During two "compelled" internal affairs interviews conducted after the five officers were arrested, Segui claimed Cox "didn't say he was hurt" and was "telling us to get him out," the report stated.

"He kept screaming, he didn't want to die there," Segui, who was in charge of the detention center that night, told investigators.

But body camera and video inside the van show Cox pleading repeatedly with officers that he believed his neck was broken and needed help. At no point was he screaming on the video, even as Lavandier dragged him out by his feet, the footage shows.

Segui told internal affairs investigators she requested more training for extracting prisoners from transport vans safely the next morning when she learned Cox was injured, the report said.

But the investigators found no record of her making the request and noted that she was likely being "untruthful" or "inconsistent" when she made several statements to them, including that she was never told Cox was injured, the report stated.

Cox was being transported after he was arrested on a gun charge at a block party. Diaz was driving 36 mph — 11 mph over the speed limit —when he slammed on the brakes of the police transport van at an intersection when he thought an SUV was going through a stop sign, according to arrest warrants for the officers.

Cox, who was handcuffed but unrestrained, struck the front wall of the van with his head, leaving him wedged on the floor, documents and video of the incident show. The video shows Cox called out that he was hurt, but Diaz didn't stop for three minutes, the report said. When he did pull over and opened the back doors of the van, he saw Cox stuck on the floor, but decided to call for an ambulance to meet them at the police station rather than waiting where he was on the side of the road, the report said.

His actions violated policy by failing to notify his supervisor that a prisoner was hurt and by failing to immediately get Cox help, the report said. He also failed to intervene while "Cox was being dragged and recklessly handled by the officers and Sgt. Segui," according to the report.

Diaz did tell some of the officers that "if he really fell, let's not move him just in case," the report said.

But that warning was ignored as Lavandier threatened to pull Cox out if he didn't start to cooperate and move on his own, the report stated.

"At no point in any of her interactions with Cox did she ever think he was actually hurt," Lavandier told investigators, according to the report.

In fact, she said a female EMS worker told her Cox was "faking" or "bluffing," but they had to transport him to the hospital anyway, the report said.

Lavandier violated policy by showing a "lack of compassion as she dragged Cox by his ankles out of the prisoner conveyance van and ridiculed him for not even trying to move when he was physically unable to do so," the report said. She also disregarded his pleas for help and placed him in leg shackles, the report said.

Rivera, who helped Lavandier pull Cox out of the van, admitted he heard Diaz say Cox may have fallen and hurt himself, according to the report. He said he thought Cox was "severely intoxicated" because he couldn't maintain his balance after he was pulled out of the van, so Rivera went to get a wheelchair.

When the wheelchair wouldn't fit in a cell, Rivera and Pressley dragged Cox into the cell and left him seated on the floor, the report said.

Internal affairs investigators concluded that Rivera violated policy by failing to intervene when Cox was pulled out of the van and by showing a lack of compassion as he "dragged Cox to the holding tank area and disregarded Cox's pleas for help."

The report identified two other officers who violated policy, but were not suspended or arrested. Officer Robert Ortiz made an "insensitive, obscene" comment toward Cox while he was injured and in pain and he also didn't activate his body camera, the report stated.

Sgt. Steven Spofford was also cited in the report as the supervisor at the scene where Cox was arrested. Spofford failed to monitor the radio transmissions as Cox was being transported and failed to intervene when Diaz notified a dispatcher that Cox had fallen and couldn't move, the report stated.

Three days after the incident, Spofford was ordered by a lieutenant to go to the hospital and serve Cox with a misdemeanor summons for the gun charges. Cox was unable to sign the summons "because he could not physically move his hands," Spofford told internal affairs investigators.

The lieutenant was directed to have the sergeant deliver the summons by Capt. Rose Dell, who was also interviewed as part of the internal investigation.

The charges were later dropped against Cox whose legal team says he has regained little movement from the chest down despite months of therapy.

The city's police commission will now consider the chief's recommendation to terminate the officers and will decide whether Spofford and Ortiz should face discipline. The commission will hold hearings with the four officers in April, officials said.