Andy Thibault Page 1 of 2 Andy Thibault [Back to Columns & Stories} Cool Justice Town Hides Cost Of Civil Rights Violations By ANDY THIBAULT, Columnist ‘Law Tribune Newspapers August 11, 2003 Meet Officer Gross Negligence — Detective William Jennings ~ and his pal Officer Deliberate Indifference — Detective Gerald Pinto — of the Stratford police. Because of Jennings and Pinto, an innocent man spent six months in jail. What's going to happen to Jennings and Pinto? Nothing. Jennings‘ and Pinto's victim, Bridgeport native Kenneth Murvin, was working an 8-hour shift on Feb. 8, 1999 - in Florida, Murvin, a safety attendant for an emergency room at a mental health facility, had been living in Florida for two years. Jennings and Pinto knew this, even as the Connecticut Violent Cries Fugitive Task Fore plamed to exiadite Murvin and charg him with a purse snatching that occurred in Stratford on Feb. 8, 1999, Jennings and Pinto did litle or thing vo Hop Marvin's leptin: asst en inareration, even we thelr only wits agai It took Milford police - who were investigating a similar purse snatching in cooperation with ‘Stratford police around that time - about 20 minutes to verify Murvin's alibis. Still, Stratford detectives Jennings and Pinto failed to uphold the law. They failed to ensure that the prosecutor had this exculpatory information. As U.S. District Court Judge Alan Nevas put it in ruling this year thet Jennings, Pinto and the town were liable for civil rights violations: “Thee is o evidence hat [Pinto] di anything to insite thatthe exculpatory information was actually disclosed to the prosecuting attomey responsible for ‘Murvin's case or was included in Murvin's file." Nevas also cited Pinto for his role in failing to alert the task force that probable cause for an arrest no longer existed. ‘And 50, an innocent man's freedom was taken, "Tost a grandmother siting in ail ‘Murvin told me. "I lost my property. I got bad credit. But things are coming together. When I came back [to my old job] I had open arms from everyone. "Nobody is above the law," Murvin said. “Just because you are a police officer doesn't mean you can make things stick when they are not true." The citizens of Stratford are paying a price for this police negligence. They just don't know how much of a price - yet. The settlement of a civil suit against the town was completed on JulyAndy Thibault Page 2 of 2 24 of this yeat. I talked to Murvin and his lawyer, Burton Weinstein of Bridgeport, the following day. “The only term of the settlement I can reveal," Weinstein told me, "is that the town says it did nothing wrong. The fact that they say they did nothing wrong says a great deal about the town.” Tealled town manager Michael Feeney and town attorney Kevin Kelly, leaving messages requesting public records, ¢g., copies of any and all checks and authorizations, for payment to ‘Weinstein and Murvin. Kelly and a colleague produced a couple documents after I followed up with a Freedom of Information Act request. The town has made at least one payment of $150,000. Sources close to the town say the total amount is $450,000. ‘Town attomeys have a tendency to protect their clients from liability. This can get out of hand, .itdid in the Murvin case. The town attomey has done his job to the extent that no one is responsible for anything - except the taxpayers who foot the bill for ineompetence, negligence and malfeasance. ” {As the town told Judge Nevas: "So far as the investigation of the Town Attorney's Office presently indicates, all individual defendants acted in good faith on the basis of waining they Back to Top