BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut — Connecticut civil rights activists on Thursday criticized a jury’s decision to clear a black police officer on federal civil rights charges after he stomped and beat an Hispanic man after arresting him in a park.
The charges stemmed from a May 2011 incident in which officer Clive Higgins and two colleagues kicked a prone Orlando Lopez-Soto after subduing him with a stun gun following a wild car chase through the streets of Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest city.
The two other officers involved pleaded guilty to misdemeanor civil rights charges and have resigned from the department, while Higgins has been suspended. Lopez-Soto is serving five years in prison after pleading guilty to drug and gun charges.
Higgins was found not guilty on Wednesday.
“This verdict represents a gross miscarriage of justice. It doesn’t matter whether the officer is white, black, or green,” said Scot Esdaile, president of the Connecticut chapter of the NAACP. “This is not an issue of color or race but is another example of juries not willing to find police officers guilty, even when they are caught on video committing outrageous acts of brutality.”
Grand juries in New York and Missouri last year declined to bring criminal charges against white officers who killed unarmed black suspects, triggering a wave of sometimes violent protests across the United States.
Higgins, a 12-year police veteran, insisted during the trial that “I never did anything wrong.”
He had faced a maximum prison term of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000.