Jury Verdict, Hung Jury Achieved for Hartford Police Officers in Excessive Force Case

860-249-1361 Ext. 148

Edwards v. Hartford – Four plaintiffs field suit against multiple Hartford police officers alleging that the officers used excessive force during the course of their arrests. On the date of the subject incident, Hartford police were executing a search warrant on an unrelated home on Bond Street in Hartford. Two of the defendant officers were securing the intersection of Bond Street and Franklin Avenue when one of the plaintiffs began a verbal altercation with them. The officers attempted to quell the situation by speaking with the individual, but he escalated the situation by using fighting words and then retreating into a home. The police officers followed, and as a result of continual refusal to cooperate with the officers’ verbal commands, a physical altercation occurred with all of the plaintiffs. The matter was tried in Connecticut District Court, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants as to two of the plaintiffs, and there was a hung jury as the remaining two.