https://tippinsights.com/east-haven-four-deserve-justice/

The ordeal of the East Haven Four began 15 years ago. It was triggered by their investigation of a Pennsylvania-based interstate license plate scheme that preyed on illegal aliens. Police began noticing that a large number of cars bearing out-of-state license plates that, when checked, were found to be fraudulent. 

With more than 1,000 such vehicles being stopped in East Haven alone, the full scope of the scheme was apparent. Illegal immigrants, overwhelmingly Hispanic, were the principal users of the plates and so included virtually all the people arrested.

Officers Cari and Spaulding located a possible seller of the plates during a routine patrol; they looked through the front windows of a local bodega and saw a display of approximately 80 license plates with price tags on them.

While Spaulding was boxing the plates, a customer became disruptive. Having survived a shooting, when Cari saw a metallic object in the customer’s hand, he commanded him to explain what he was doing. Only when the man refused and began struggling with him did Cari realize the object was a video camera. 

Once under arrest, the man identified himself as the pastor at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church (and an immigrants’ rights activist).

The bodega incident took place just as Obama was launching his undeclared war on the nation’s police departments.

At the tip of the spear was Attorney General Eric Holder’s Assistant for Civil Rights, an ambitious Democrat politician named Tom Perez. He was rewarded with a seat on Obama’s Cabinet and, later, the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.

Perez dug up a handful of citizens’ complaints, tied them together with bits of their radio chatter – then claimed to have uncovered a civil rights conspiracy.Even so, the overt acts charged in the indictment were – at worst – minor violations of police protocols. Cari’s brief tussle with the priest, which did not result in any injuries, constituted the most serious act in the indictment. Officer Cari, who arrested the priest, was charged with false arrest and obstruction.

Zullo was indicted for filing a police report following a high-speed chase and neglecting to mention that his patrol car had come into contact with the suspect’s motorcycle – even though no damage occurred.

Sgt. Miller’s crime was poking his finger, one time, at the chest of a drunken suspect who was making threats. 

Hardly Murder One, but Perez trumpeted the indictment to the press, calling East Haven’s Police “broken from top to bottom.”

Miller pled guilty to using unreasonable force and Zullo to obstruction of justice. The government recommended probation, but Miller received four months and Zullo served two years.

Cari and Spaulding were convicted after trial of false arrest and obstruction, receiving sentences of two and one-half and five years in prison, respectively (Spaulding was also convicted of using unreasonable force).

The real punishments happened later. Their careers in ruins, Miller and Cari lost their disability pensions and, after heavy local publicity, all four were unable to find jobs.

Cari’s home was foreclosed and he relocated to Florida. Zullo pieced together multiple low-paying jobs until he became certified as a union welder.

Spaulding arguably suffered the most. His wife gave birth to their second child just two days before the jury found him guilty: he spent his daughter’s first four years in a federal correctional institution.

The East Haven Four were the victims of an unjust, discriminatory, political prosecution. Their sentences were vastly out of proportion to the nature of their acts.

In a similar case, President Trump pardoned former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio on his conviction of criminal contempt. The same should happen here.

Like Sheriff Arpaio, the East Haven Four devoted their lives to our protection, some shedding their blood in the process.

They have earned a Pardon. It is time to declare a truce in the War on Cops.

Jason C. Johnson is an attorney who served more than 20 years as a patrol officer, instructor and hostage negotiator before being named Deputy Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department. He is President of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.