ONE POLICE OFFICER FIRED, ONE PLACED ON LEAVE IN NEW LONDON

New London - The city fired a police officer Friday for his role in
the beating of a man outside of a drug and alcohol detoxification
center and placed another officer on administrative leave while
allegations that he planted drugs during an arrest are investigated.

Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said Officer Joshua Bergeson was fired
following an administrative hearing Friday afternoon to review his
role in the Dec. 14 beating of Reuben Miller outside the Southeastern
Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency facility on Coit Street.

K-9 Officer Roger Newton has been placed on paid administrative
leave, Finizio said, as federal, state and local agencies investigate
a city man's allegations that Newton planted drugs at the scene
during his arrest on drug-dealing charges in October 2010. Lance
Goode, 43, says a video shot from a police cruiser shows Newton
planting the drugs.

Newton is the "subject of an ongoing criminal investigation in the
New London Police Department," Finizio said at a press conference
Friday at City Hall.

Goode, who admits he's been arrested "over 30 times" by New London
police, said Newton planted a bag of oxycodone pills near a car after
Newton and Officer Timothy Henderson followed Goode to a residence on
Oct. 20, 2010.

Goode said the officers pulled up to 32 Fuller Ave. after Goode had
parked his car and claimed he hadn't used a turn signal.

In a 50-minute cruiser dashboard video that Goode provided to The Day
on Thursday, the two officers are seen pulling up behind Goode at the
residence without their police lights illuminated, then confronting
Goode, who said he had been driving a friend's car.

Goode said he was not able to find a valid insurance card so he went
looking for it in the residence while Henderson followed. Newton, in
the video, circles the car, waving a flashlight inside Goode's car
before returning to his cruiser.

Goode said the officers told him they would tow the vehicle and Goode
gave an officer his key. The officers allowed Goode to take his
possessions out of the car before they towed it, Goode said.

In the video, Goode opens the trunk and removes several items that he
takes into a house, with Henderson following.

Newton, Goode said, can be seen in the video dropping a plastic bag
filled with white pills. Newton looks around, Goode said, before
kicking the bag behind two trash cans.

A minute or so later, a third cruiser pulls up, at which point Goode
is arrested and put into the back of a cruiser.

"I was coming out of the house and one of the officers had a Taser
and I said, 'You're going to Taser me for not having an insurance
card?'" Goode said. "Newton said, 'No, for narcotics.'" He was not Tasered.

Goode said Thursday the case was nolled, or not prosecuted, and that
he and his public defender, Shawn Tiernan, had received a copy of the
dashboard video as part of the discovery process. Goode said he first
saw the video Dec. 10, and couldn't believe what he saw. He forwarded
a copy of the tape to the state's attorney's office and said that
Supervisory Investigator Philip Fazzino was looking into it.

"When they saw it, they said that's criminal," Goode said.

Goode said that despite his lengthy arrest record, he'd never before
encountered Newton.

"I want his ass fired and locked up," Goode said of Newton. "The
initial trust starts with the police. Who else would he do that to,
seeing as he has so much power?"

Tiernan refused comment Friday, as did Michael Kennedy, the
supervisory assistant state's attorney at the GA10 court on Broad Street.

No report of the arrest exists, a clerk at the police department said Friday.

Finizio said he had not seen the video.

SCADD incident

Bergeson, who joined the department in 2007, has a lengthy record of
disciplinary actions, Finizio said.

Bergeson was suspended from the force in 2009 after he allegedly
slapped a woman while off duty in April of that year at the Shrine
nightclub at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The report from those incidents
was among the files Finizio made public Friday afternoon. Finizio
said Bergeson was fired for "repeated absences from work and his
involvement in the incident at the SCADD facility."

Police charged Miller, 31, Dec. 14 with interfering with an officer
and second-degree breach of peace after responding around 7:30 p.m.
to the SCADD detoxification center on Coit Street. Witnesses,
including center technician Stanley Jurgielewicz, said police
officers who responded when called by SCADD to help take Miller to
the hospital repeatedly punched and pepper-sprayed him when they
arrived on scene.

Miller had CAT scans and X-rays done after his arrest, his attorney,
David Jaffe, said last month, and suffered bruises over a large
portion of his body. At least one rib was broken, Jaffe said, and
Miller had a concussion, suffers from headaches and has trouble
sleeping. Most of the physical injuries involved Miller's ribs, neck
and back, Jaffe said.

Finizio said the investigation into the incident, conducted by Capt.
William Dittman, is complete but will not yet be released to the
public because Miller has filed an intent to sue the city.

Finizio did not disclose Bergeson's precise role in the incident, but
he said that no other officers will be disciplined. He also said he
has the utmost confidence in the "overwhelming majority" of the
city's police officers.

"The New London Police Department is a good department, full of good
officers," Finizio said. "And this administration will stand behind
the police who want to come to work, do a good job, and help our city
and bring honor to their department.

"And through this transition in management, and through these ongoing
investigations, we will make sure that we have the best department
possible, that we become a model for efficiency and integrity, and
that we make the people of New London proud."