HARTFORD, Conn (AP) - A corrections officer who was videotaped kicking a New Haven jail inmate who died following the altercation should face third-degree assault charges, a state prosecutor said Friday.
But Ansonia-Milford State’s Attorney Margaret Kelley said in her report that the guards were not directly responsible for the death of the inmate, Carl Talbot, who suffered from severe mental illness.
Talbot, 30, died in March while jailed for a parole violation. He refused to leave a shower area or cooperate with officers and was subsequently pepper-sprayed multiple times and put in restraints in his cell, authorities said.
He was later found unresponsive and brought to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced dead nearly three hours after the initial altercation with corrections officers.
Last October, the chief medical examiner ruled Talbot’s death a homicide after determining he died from “physical struggle with restraint, atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease and morbid obesity,” according to the report.
Video shows corrections Lt. Carlos Padro allegedly striking Talbot’s upper torso with his leg after using a chemical spray on him in the New Haven Correctional Center’s shower area, according to the prosecutor who called for charges against Padro.
An email seeking comment was sent to Padro. It was not made immediately clear if he had a lawyer representing him.
Talbot was diagnosed as child with bipolar disorder, according to his mother, Colleen Lord.
Kelley said in the report that no actions by corrections officers “give rise to the degree of recklessness, such as would be a prerequisite to any criminal prosecution for the death of Mr. Talbot based upon that state of mind.”
“There is no basis for criminal prosecution for the death of Mr. Talbot based on intentional conduct,” she said.
Karen Martucci, spokeswoman for the state Department of Correction, wrote in an email that the department is in the process of reviewing the arrest warrant and deciding on the next course of action. She added that Padro retired from state service March 31, 2019.
Talbot’s family said they would continue looking into the case.
“Our understanding is that in a case where several factors by many involved persons contributed together to cause a person’s death, criminality of any one person is difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt,” the family said in a statement.
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Chris Ehrmann is a corps member for Report for America, a nonprofit organization that supports local news coverage, in a partnership with The Associated Press for Connecticut. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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