Ex-corrections officer wins $160,000 in suit against New Haven police officer

New Haven Police Department New Haven Police Department Photo: Journal Register Co. Photo: Journal Register Co. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Ex-corrections officer wins $160,000 in suit against New Haven police officer 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN >>Tavares Mazyck has won a jury trial in which he was awarded $160,000 in his federal civil rights lawsuit against a New Haven police officer for malicious prosecution.

The ruling against Officer Anthony Holloman, now retired, came down Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport.

The jury decided Mazyck is entitled to $60,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages.

Mazyck, now 38, of Northford, lost his job as a state corrections officer as a result of being arrested outside his home on Burr Street eight years ago during an argument with his girlfriend.

Mazyck eventually decided to file the lawsuit pro se (on his own) because he couldn’t find a lawyer willing to take the case. But later, attorney Glenn Conway, who is based in New Haven, agreed to take the case pro bono (for free) and write the complaint. Conway cannot collect any of the $160,000 award but he can submit a bill for the time he devoted to the case.

Conway said it’s unusual and difficult for a plaintiff to win cases such as this because “a jury has to believe your guy over the word of a police officer. These days, a police officer still carries more weight in his testimony with the average citizen.”

In his complaint, Conway named as defendants not just Holloman but also the City of New Haven, Police Sgt. J.P. Kelly, Officer Bryan Morris and Police Detective Timothy Wilson.

Kelly’s name was removed from the lawsuit because he died during the lengthy litigation. During jury selection, Conway decided to remove the city as a defendant because he didn’t feel he had a sufficiently strong case against city officials. And after Conway presented his evidence and witnesses, U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill removed Morris and Wilson as defendants, ruling Conway had not proven his case against them.

Conway said he doesn’t disagree with Underhill’s decision on those two defendants. “There was no evidence they engaged in a cover-up. They didn’t know what Holloman was writing in his report.”

Conway alleged Holloman lied in his testimony and in his report, although Conway conceded he was not on the scene during the argument on Burr Street.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Michael Wolak, who represented the defendants at the trial, said, “I don’t believe Officer Holloman lied at any time. The jury, for whatever reason, chose to believe one side over the other. That doesn’t mean one side wasn’t telling the truth.”

Wolak said city officials are “disappointed” about the jury’s outcome and that Holloman is “devastated.” Wolak noted the punitive damages are against Holloman himself rather than the city.

Asked if that means the city will not help Holloman pay the punitive damages, Wolak said, “The city is not obligated, by law, to pay punitive damages. But the city is not forbidden to pay those damages. I don’t know where that’s at right now. We’re looking at all of our options, including whether to appeal.”

Conway said the domestic argument began after Mazyck came home late from a visit to a casino. His girlfriend confronted him and, according to Mazyck, assaulted him. When Mazyck called police, both of them were arrested.

Conway’s federal complaint stated that the next day a Superior Court judge granted Mazyck a domestic violence protective order against his girlfriend. The judge’s order also gave her the right to return once to the residence she had previously shared with Mazyck. The police were supposed to be present and she would turn over her key when she left.

But Conway’s complaint stated that after Mazyck and his girlfriend got out of court, she returned to the residence before he did and she was inside without a police escort. He called the police; Holloman and Morris responded just after the girlfriend came out of the house.

According to the complaint, Mazyck showed the protective order to the officers, but Holloman then went back inside with the girlfriend while Mazyck was told to remain outside with Morris.

Conway charged that after the girlfriend told the officers Mazyck had drugs in the house, “Holloman searched on her say-so, even though the order said it was his house. Holloman did a warrantless search without consent of the owner.”

Conway said Holloman found a small amount of cocaine and Mazyck was then arrested on drug charges. Those charges later were dropped.

“During the course of the illegal searches and seizure,” Conway’s complaint charged, “the plaintiff was forced to sit in the back of a police cruiser, handcuffed, for two hours.”

But Wolak said Holloman “had to make a split-second decision” about what actions to take. “He was trying to mediate the situation” while Mazyck and his girlfriend argued.

Wolak said Holloman believed the girlfriend was still living there. Wolak also said Holloman stated Mazyck “did not object” to the search.

“Unfortunately, Officer Holloman took Mr. Mazyck’s silence as consent,” Wolak said. “But under the law, silence is not consent.”

Conway said Holloman “never established whose residence it was and never sought my guy’s permission (to search). He didn’t look at the protective order to see who owned it and he didn’t ask my guy for permission to go inside. He would have said ‘No.’”

Conway’s complaint stated that on the same day of that search, Kelly, under the orders of New Haven Police Detective William “Billy” White, called Mazyck’s supervisor at the state Department of Correction and falsely alleged Mazyck was a narcotics dealer who hired ex-inmates to sell drugs for him.

Mazyck was fired from his job. Conway said that since losing that position, with its annual salary of $60,000, Mazyck has done jobs such as delivering newspapers.

He also lost his house.

But Conway said, “He now has gotten some measure of compensation in addition to vindication.”

Call Randall Beach at 203-680-9345.