Four cops nabbed by FBI for immigrant assault

CONNECTICUT (AP):

Four police officers, including the president of the local police union, were arrested yesterday by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) on charges that they assaulted illegal immigrants and covered up abuses in a New Haven suburb where a federal investigation found life was made miserable for Hispanics.

The East Haven officers assaulted individuals while they were handcuffed, unlawfully searched Latino businesses, and harrassed and intimidated individuals, including advocates, witnesses and other officers who tried to investigate or report misconduct or abuse the officers committed, according to the federal indictment.

Federal authorities began investigating police in 2009 in East Haven, where the federal probe last month documented a pattern of abuse. The Hispanic population had doubled in the past decade to more than 10 per cent of the seaside city's 28,000 people, but Latino business owners said rough treatment by police drove away many newcomers from Mexico and Ecuador.

The arrests were welcomed by Hispanic business owners in East Haven, including Luis Rodriguez, an immigrant from Ecuador who had complained of harassment by police at his Los Amigos Grocery store.

"They should have to pay, not with many years, but enough to make an example of them. They should not abuse their power," Rodriguez said. "All I ever wanted was to be left in peace."

Officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari and Jason Zullo and Sergeant John Miller, president of the police union, are charged with conspiracy, deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice.