Cop acquitted in Beardsley Park stomping Bridgeport officer found not guilty in attack on man in Beardsley Park

Bridgeport police officer Clive Higgins gets a hug from a fellow police officer after being found not guilty, after his trial outside of Federal Court in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 14, 2015. Higgins was one of three officers involved in a stomping of a suspect in Beardsley Park in 2011. less Bridgeport police officer Clive Higgins gets a hug from a fellow police officer after being found not guilty, after his trial outside of Federal Court in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 14, 2015. Higgins ... more Photo: Christian Abraham Buy photo Photo: Christian Abraham Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Cop acquitted in Beardsley Park stomping 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT -- He said he never stopped praying.

And then at 2:47 p.m. Wednesday, Police Officer Clive Higgins' prayers were answered.

That's when a U.S. District Court jury ended what a family member described as 13 months of hell. After deliberating for just 2½ hours, jurors cleared the suspended cop of any wrongdoing in the May 20, 2011, videotaped beating of Orlando Lopez-Soto in Beardsley Park.

Upon hearing courtroom deputy Yelena Gutierrez read the verdict, Higgins, tall and muscular, rose with a big smile and tears welling.

He nodded thanks to the 11 white and one black Fairfield County residents who sat in judgment as the jury. After they left, he hugged his lawyers, Assistant U.S. Public Defenders Paul Thomas and Kelly Barrett.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer then told Higgins he could leave the courthouse "a free man" after being on trial for the past three days.

"I never stopped praying," said Higgins, a 12-year police veteran who teaches Sunday School at Mount Aery Baptist Church. "I did a whole lot of praying. Now, God has spoken."

Higgins maintains, "I never did anything wrong."

The jury's decision is the third in recent weeks clearing a police officer of what activists like Scot X. Esdaile, state president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, claim is police misconduct. From Day 1, the backlash sparked by decisions clearing an officer in the fatal shooting of a teen in Ferguson, Mo., and another in the chokehold death of a Staten Island man, hovered over this case.

"This result is very shocking," said Esdaile. "It's a gross miscarriage of justice."

Esdaile said jurors treat police officers differently than others.

"It's not an issue of color, but of right and wrong," he said. "The NAACP did not fight so long and so hard to get diversity in departments, only to have a police officer conduct himself in that manner."

Frank Riccio II, a local defense lawyer who represented an East Haven police officer convicted in a similar federal case, said jurors are instructed to return a verdict of not guilty if they have any reasonable doubt as to a defendant's role.

"So a verdict of not guilty does not necessarily mean that the defendant is innocent," he said. "It means that the government did not prove their case beyond reasonable doubt."

Higgins was the last of the three police officers to face a federal criminal charge stemming from the incident, which Timothy Fennell videotaped while relaxing in the park.

Previously, Elson Morales and Joseph Lawlor, two other 12-year police veterans assigned to the Violent Crime Initiative task force, pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge for violating Lopez-Soto's civil rights by kicking him. They resigned from the department and face up to a year in prison.

Neither testified against Higgins.

"An armchair quarterback would question why the government did not call those two officers (Morales and Lawlor) as witnesses," Riccio said. "Maybe their testimony would have made a difference."

Instead, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gustafson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anastasia King relied primarily on Fennell's video recording, which has drawn nearly 430,000 views on YouTube since appearing in January 2013.

It shows Lopez-Soto falling to the ground after being jolted by a stun gun, with Morales in pursuit.

Morales and Lawlor are seen kicking the prone victim, and Lawlor is even seen stomping on him. It shows Higgins pulling up in a cruiser, walking around Morales and launching a kick.

Thomas called no witnesses in Higgins' defense. Instead, he relied on his blistering cross-examination of Lopez-Soto, a twice convicted gun-toting, crack dealer who he described as an "outlaw" for leading police on a high-speed chase down city streets in an unregistered, uninsured minivan.

He also used FBI Special Agent Emil Parelli's interview of Higgins to tell his client's side of the story. Parelli testified that Higgins was concerned Lopez-Soto was armed and kicked him to keep him from getting up.

Thomas pointed out that Lopez-Soto was wearing an empty holster around his waist, while a loaded 40mm handgun, marijuana and crack cocaine were in the van.

The defense lawyer urged the eight-man, four-woman jury to review the video much like an NFL referee responds to a football coach's challenge on a controversial call.

He said what actually happened still "remains as blurry as the video that is the heart of the government's case."

Afterward, Thomas said the jury "took a very careful look at the totality of the government's evidence and found it unconvincing."

"From the onset, Higgins consistently represented that he didn't want Lopez-Soto to get up," said Edward Gavin, a Bridgeport lawyer who handled the officer's case in its early stages.

After the verdict, Higgins repeated his concern that Lopez-Soto presented a danger to people in the park.

"We had information 10 days before the May 20 arrest that he was terrorizing the East Side with a gun," Higgins said. "This guy was running around crazy."

Following the Beardsley Park incident, Lopez-Soto was taken to St. Vincent's Medical Center for facial cuts and bruises, one of which required a stitch.

Bridgeport paid him $198,000 to settle the brutality lawsuit he brought.

U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly, who sat through portions of the testimony, said her office respects the jury's verdict and complimented the FBI and prosecutors "for their hard work" on the case.

"Our office will continue to prioritize civil rights investigations," she said.

Meanwhile, several police officers rolled up to the courthouse to congratulate Higgins as he left. He told everyone he could that his lawyers "were amazing."

He remains on administrative leave, Police Chief Joseph Gaudett said in a written statement Wednesday.

Higgins, who wears a back brace and walks with a cane, said his focus now is to recover from back and knee injuries he said were suffered on the job. When asked if he would return to police work, he said that it was up to his doctors.

"I'm a Christian man," Higgins said. "I should never have had to go through this nonsense. I was hired to protect the citizens of Bridgeport and that's all I ever tried to do."

mmayko@ctpost.com