More than six years ago, cops in Connecticut shot
Gonzalo
Guizan to death during a SWAT raid in which 21 police officers
participated, based on a tip about a small amount of cocaine at his
house. Guizan was shot six times by Michael Sweeney, a police
officer in Monroe Township. In March 2009 the attorney
general of Connecticut exonerated
the officers, largely based on their own testimony.
More than five years later, the lawsuits are still working its
way through the legal system. In 2012 the five cities involved,
represented by the same lawyer as Sweeney, tried to block the
family’s lawsuit from moving forward. Last year, the Guizan family
settled with the police departments involved for $3.5 million.
While the cities insisted police were not responsible for their
actions, the family’s attorney maintained the settlement meant
otherwise.
This week, a federal court ruled the police departments did not
enjoy immunity in the litigation surrounding the constitutional
rights of the homeowner, whose guest Guizan was.
Via the Connecticut Post:
A federal appeals court has ruled the police departments of
Easton, Monroe, Trumbull, Darien and Wilton cannot use a shield of
immunity to protect them from millions of dollars in civil rights
claims arising from a 2008 tactical-team raid that killed a Norwalk
man and injured an Easton homeowner.In a 51-page decision, 10 months after it heard arguments in the
case, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the
way for a jury to decide whether the police departments violated
Ronald Terebesi’s constitutional rights when a heavily armed team
smashed down his door, tossed stun grenades into his home and
fatally shot his house guest, 33-year-old Gonzalo Guizan,
The police chief in Easton, who ordered the raid, is able to
maintain immunity for the decision to call in the SWAT team but not
anything that happened afterward.
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