Bridgeport cop charged with assault after collison

BRIDGEPORT - The head of the Police Department’s minority organization was arrested and a top city official questioned in connection with an assault on a city resident after a car collision.

Officer Davon Polite, 30, president of The Guardians, was charged Thursday with second-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace.

Police said Polite allegedly dragged a 41-year-old man from his van and beat and kicked him after the man’s van collided with Polite’s red Mercedes sedan on Sept. 19, 2016, on Hurd Avenue.

Polite, who has been on the police force four years, has been suspended without pay pending a further hearing, said police Chief Armando Perez.

“The investigation is continuing in this case and we hope to move swiftly on this matter,” the chief said, “I consider this a serious matter.”

Prior to the crash, police said Polite had been attending a family celebration at the restaurant. Then-city Chief Administrative Officer John Gomes also attended the celebration.

Police said they questioned Gomes on five phone calls that had gone back and forth between Polite and Gomes following the assault incident.

“OIA (city Office of Internal Affairs) investigators asked Gomes if Polite was attempting to use Gomes’ position as chief administrative officer to influence the outcome of the investigation. Gomes replied that ‘he can’t speak of what he’s thinking and why he used my name,’ ’’ Gomes said, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. When asked why Polite would contact Gomes after the incident, Gomes replied, ‘that’s a good question,’ but did not elaborate,” the affidavit states.

Gomes, who is now deputy chief administrative officer for the city, did not return calls for comment.

Polite’s lawyer, Dennis Bradley, said his client was acting in self defense and claimed the charges are in retaliation for his client’s work with The Guardians.

“Without a shadow of a doubt he is being targeted because he is now president of The Guardians,” Bradley said.

He contends the van driver purposely hit Polite’s car and denies that Polite beat and kicked the man.

“We are not denying that an incident happened but it was an incident of self defense,” Bradley said. “These are trumped up charges in retaliation for his good friend and mentor Lt. Lonnie Blackwell bringing a discrimination lawsuit against the city.”

Blackwell, who was recently demoted to sergeant following an investigation of a phony racist letter being distributed in the Police Department, has a federal discrimination suit pending against the city.

In the Polite case, police were dispatched to Bridgeport Hospital on Sept. 19 for an assault victim, according to the affidavit.

The victim, who was being treated for trauma to his face and bruises in his side, said he had been leaving the Pioneira restaurant on Hurd Avenue about 1 a.m., when he turned right and his van accidentally struck a newer red Mercedes sedan causing minor damage.

The victim said a man got out of the driver’s seat of the Mercedes and they got into a confrontation that ended when the man dragged the victim out of his van and — along with at least one other man — beat and kicked the victim, the affidavit states.

The affidavit continues that the victim said he was told the man who attacked him was a police officer and he subsequently identified officer Polite as his assailant. The affidavit states that Polite is the owner of a 2014 Mercedes sedan.

A woman who claims she was in Polite’s Mercedes at the time of the incident, said she saw the victim on the ground and she yelled for Polite and the other men to stop assaulting him, the affidavit states.

Another woman said she saw Polite, his father, Marvin Polite and a third man assaulting the victim following the collision.

“(She) told the three males that she was going to call the police, and one of the males replied that she didn’t have to call the police because a cop was already there,” the affidavit states.

Marvin Polite, 50, is facing the same charges as his son and was released after posting $500 bond. Davon Polite was released after posting $500 bond pending arraignment in Superior Court on March 29.