Eastern Connecticut State University Police Officers Charged with Civil Rights Violations

Nora R. Dannehy, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Patricia M. Froehlich, the State’s Attorney for the Windham Judicial District, and Kimberly K. Mertz, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that a federal grand jury sitting in New Haven returned an indictment today charging MARTIN J. PRAISNER, JR., 47, of Lisbon, and STEVEN M. CRAIG, 43, of Glastonbury, with civil rights violations. The indictment alleges that PRAISNER and CRAIG, while employed as police officers by the Eastern Connecticut State University Police Department, violated an arrestee’s civil rights by repeatedly spraying the arrestee with pepper spray while the arrestee was being held in a detention cell.

According to the indictment, in the early morning hours of September 1, 2008, CRAIG arrested the victim on the Eastern Connecticut State University campus for criminal trespass in the first degree. The victim was transported to the Eastern Connecticut State University Police Department facility and placed in the holding cell located there. The holding cell was approximately four and one-half feet wide, approximately two and one-half feet deep and approximately seven and one-half feet high, and was located in an unventilated hallway.

The indictment further alleges that, after the victim damaged the holding cell wall when he was denied his request to contact counsel, PRAISNER warned the victim that the officers “were going to pepper spray” him if he continued to damage the cell, and that the victim was “going to sit in there pepper sprayed.” After the victim continued to kick the cell wall, PRAISNER sprayed the victim in the face with Oleoresin Capsicum pepper spray. The victim was not removed from the cell and was sprayed on several more occasions, the last time with a Cap-Stun Weapon System Crowd Control Oleoresin Capsicum pepper spray unit. The indictment alleges that the officers did not remove the victim from the cell for another 11 minutes after the last spray.

The indictment charges PRAISNER and CRAIG, acting under the color law, with one count of conspiracy to violate an individual’s civil rights, and one count of violating an individual’s civil rights. Each of these charges carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

The indictment also charges CRAIG with one count of obstruction of justice stemming from an alleged false report he filed in connection with the arrest. This charge carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

U.S. Attorney Dannehy stressed that an indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. The defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it is the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of Windham, and the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney.

U.S. Attorney Dannehy and State’s Attorney Froehlich noted that the Eastern Connecticut State University Police Department has been fully cooperative during the course of this investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant United States Attorney Anthony E. Kaplan and Special Assistant United States Attorney Andrew J. Slitt, who has been cross-designated from the Windham State’s Attorney’s Office.