Community Corner

Dennis Spaulding: 'I Am Not A Racist'

In a public post on his Facebook page, Dennis Spaulding — the former East Haven Police officer sentenced to five years in prison Thursday — shares his letter to the court, which seeks to provide "a more complete picture of who I really am."

Late Thursday afternoon, former East Haven Police Officer Dennis Spaulding was sentenced to five years in prison after he was found guilty of civil rights violations related to the racial profiling of Latino residents.

After receiving that sentence, Spaulding took to his personal Facebook page Thursday evening and shared in a public and open post his letter to the judge overseeing the case, Alvin W. Thompson.

"During the course of this trial, I have been portrayed as a bully and a racist," Spaulding stated in the letter's opening paragraph. "I would like to use this opportunity to give the court, in my own words, a more complete picture of who I really am and a deeper understanding of my actions."

The following is Spaulding's post and sentencing statement to the court in full: 

Dear Honorable Judge Alvin W. Thompson:

My Name is Dennis Spaulding:

During the course of this trial, I have been portrayed as a bully and a racist. I would like to use this opportunity to give the court, in my own words, a more complete picture of who I really am and a deeper understanding of my actions.

Since the time I was 16 years old, I have worked side-by-side with undocumented immigrates in the restaurant business. They have shared their stories and their struggles to enter this country, most times coming through the desert with little food or water. They have shared their struggle to continue to live in the shadows. As I told Father Manship numerous times, I applaud his efforts to push for immigration reform. The undocumented population, which I have met, truly are hardworking people who struggle every day for the betterment of their lives and the lives of their families. I hope the federal government will soon address these issues.

One of my good friends, Edison or as we call him, MO, is an undocumented immigrant. I had the pleasure of working with Mo for almost 3 years and have been friends ever since. When I formed a softball team, I asked Mo if he wanted to play, although he was more of a soccer player, I offered to teach him. I met with him and some of his Ecuadorian friends several times a week, at a baseball field down the street from work. When the season started Mo played left field, although he wasn’t very good, he loved putting on the uniform and just being on the field. Mo and his wife, Johanna, have two children together and it was my wife, who is a nurse and a board certified lactation specialist, who took care of them in the hospital when they had their second child. It was also my wife that they called afterward for breastfeeding advice.

When another co-worker and friend, Fernando who is also undocumented, told me that he wanted to go to a New York Mets game, but was afraid to drive there because he didn’t have a valid license, I bought us two tickets to a double header and together we went. I will never forget the look on his face when we entered that stadium, the old Shay Stadium, a place that he had only seen on TV. It was a truly breathtaking experience for him as it was his first Major League baseball game. 

I am not a racist, nor do I use racist language. When others use it, it makes me uncomfortable and I do my best to ignore it. 

Per the advice of my counsel, I will not go into details regarding the two incidents to which I was convicted, but would like to offer the following:

While working the center district of town, I began to notice a rash of vehicles with out-of-state license plates, and began to investigate. The overwhelming problem stemmed from the State of Pennsylvania. Sometime around 2007 and early 2008, I had numerous encounters with vehicles with Pennsylvania plates. The driver’s almost never had a license and had the same computer printed insurance card, from the American Independent Insurance Company. Through my investigation, I was able to determine that these insurance cards were fake and the license plates were fraudulently obtained. The owners were paying up to $1500 for them.

Shortly after seeing how large scale this was, I contacted Allen Cohon, a News Channel 8 investigative reporter. Allen quickly saw how large this fraud was and immediately began to look into it. With assistance from a New Haven Lieutenant, and myself, Allen was able to break the case wide open. News Channel 8 aired numerous segments regarding this story and soon after over 1500 license plates were cancelled by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and two arrests were made for selling the plates and forged documents. By my estimates this was a fraud resulted in nearly $2 million dollars exchanging hands with those involved in this organized crime. After working with Allen on the Pennsylvania plates, I had opened other investigations into states with similar problems. I had provided the FBI with the information that they would need to obtain my case files regarding these investigations. Some of the worst fraud was occurring with Washington State, Wisconsin and South Carolina.

It was a top priority of mine and to the department to get these vehicles off the road, as the drivers were mostly unlicensed and uninsured. This led to hundreds and hundreds of motor vehicle arrests of drivers of these vehicle’s, which were almost always from Central or South America. Most of these driver’s had identification cards or passports issued by foreign countries or admitted to being in the United States illegally. This led to tensions, between the police and the Hispanic community and a feeling that they were being targeted, during the period of 2008 and 2010. The entire department was aware of this fraud as well as the mayor, police chief, supervisors and local prosecutors, who aggressively prosecuted these crimes. During an election year, Mayor April Capone sent out flyers explaining the crack down on what she described as “tax-cheats” with out-of-state license plates. Working the most heavily populated Hispanic district in town and having initiated these investigations, I bore the brunt of criticism and attacks from those that opposed the enforcement of these laws. Yes, in 2008, early in the Pennsylvania plate investigation LT Butler spoke to me about his profiling concerns. After explaining the fraud, my reasonable suspicion for stopping the vehicles and the intelligence that I had gathered, he never raised the concerns again. In fact he continued to sign off on the arrest reports and set the bond for the individuals arrested.

Officers within the department would often patrol their districts looking for motor vehicles with fraudulent out-of-state plates, as well as stolen or unregistered Connecticut plates. Often times, one of these vehicles would be spotted parked in a parking lot and officers would take up a position across the street or near by, waiting for the driver to enter the street, so that they could be quickly apprehended, before putting the public endanger. I think it is worth noting that nearly every conflict listed in the indictment, between a member of the Hispanic community and myself, started over license plates or during a traffic stop of a vehicle with out-of-state license plates. I know that it was the individual’s undocumented status that result in these crimes being committed, as no lawful resident of the United States or a United States citizen would ever pay $1500 for a registration that costs around $100. It was not because they were of Hispanic decent. It was the crime that was targeted, not the color of someone’s skin.

Soon after arresting some of these individuals, the police officers began to see, some of these individuals had extensive and sometimes violent arrest records, It was soon determined that these records should be forwarded to Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who are better trained and prepared to make decisions when dealing with these issues. Speaking more Spanish then most, I became the department’s unofficial liaison to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Supervisors would sometimes call me off the road to assist other officers in contacting ICE via our computer system, better known as NCIC. At one time LT. Butler had me type up an instructional guide regarding this process, so that it could be use by other members of the department when I was not working. Though, Immigration officials only issued about 20 federal detainers a year between 2009-2011, for what they considered a “top priority”, panic quickly spread among members of the Hispanic community and further strained relations with the East Haven Police Department. To date, this nation still does not have a solution to the problem. When tensions continued to mount over these two issues, it was the East Haven Police union who took out a full-page ad in our local newspaper to try and calm the situation. Explaining the problem with unlicensed drivers and fraudulently obtained out-of state license plates. Also explaining that immigration officials where only being contacted when suspected undocumented immigrants were arrested and at no other time.

I worked the center district of town for many years, sometimes working up to 60-80 hours per week. During that time, I tried to meet with every Hispanic business owner to inform them about the motor vehicle enforcement that the department was engaged in, to try to calm some of the tensions. I requested that business owners assist me in coming up with a solution to the problem. Instead of assisting in a solution, some business owners continually requested that I simply ignore or not enforce the motor vehicle laws on the undocumented population. Further stating the motor vehicle enforcement was hurting their businesses, as a large percentage of their customers were undocumented. Ignoring the law was not a solution that I was willing to accept, so I continued to informed individual that they were being exploited. That the $1500 they were paying for these registrations was being used to line the pockets of greedy individuals. Greedy individuals that could care less if an undocumented immigrant was arrested for possessing one of these license plates or fake insurance card.

During my time working the center district, of town, I made numerous requests for the department to send to the Spanish speaking classes, so I could better serve the community, which I worked for. When these requests were denied, I paid to attend a Spanish class at Gateway Community College and took a trip to Puerto Rico with my elderly neighbor to further help in learning the language.

Through meeting with my attorney, I learned that the FBI New Haven office initially investigated this case. Their tactics included driving a validly registered vehicle, with Hispanic drivers and passengers, to see if the they would get pulled over. After attempting this, several times, the vehicle was never pulled over by myself or any other member of East Haven Police Department. After the FBI New Haven Case Agent reported that the case went dormant, he destroyed the nearly one in thick case file, which could have contained several hundred documents. We will never know if any exculpatory evidence was contained within.

I was also aggressively involved in enforce DWI laws and have received statewide recognition by Mothers Against Drunk Driving 4 years in a row between 2007 and 2010. Being a police officer in the town of East Haven, I knew I was more likely to save a life through motor vehicle enforcement, then through any other means. Far more people are killed by motor vehicles in East Haven then by any other method.
Being an East Haven Police officer, all to often I have had to see a dead body lying on the asphalt, or a paramedic desperately trying to revive a person, whom we all know will never make it. This is one of the main reasons why, I aggressively enforced motor vehicle laws.

Under the previous ownership of LaBamba’s Restaurant I was employed there as a police officer for added security in a rough, problematic bar. Soon after, the owner of Barra’s café requested that I also work for him. These bars required added police resources and attention. Despite hiring a police officer to work on busy nights, police were still dispatch there several hundred times. Between 2007 and 2010 police were dispatch to these two bars more than any other businesses in town. These businesses were heavily patrolled by police. Every Friday and Saturday 2 or 3 extra officers in addition to the 2 midnight officers were held over to assist with policing these bars. I worked extra duty at both bars for years and have made many casual friends at both establishments. 

During my eight-year career, I have always been a proactive police officer, as sitting in a parking lot reading a newspaper, was never an option for me. In that time, I have made over 1000 criminal arrests and have no shortage of enemies or people that wish me ill will. My arrests include, drug dealers, drug users, armed robbery suspects, shooting suspects, car thieves, assault suspects, drunk drivers, shoplifters, child molesters, as well as motor vehicle arrests. Many of these individuals will soon celebrate the fact that I am going to prison.

Now that I have been tried and convicted by a jury of my peers, it is to late for me to take the stand in my own defense. I will have to live with that decision for the rest of my life. The transition from a decorated police officer to a convicted felon, will not be an easy one for me.

The pain and suffering that my family has been through is unimaginable. I have lost my career as a police officer, a career that I loved. As much as I loved my career, I love my family the most. It is my wife Nicole and our two children, Tyler and Isabelle, who will suffer the most while I am away. I ask that you please let me return to my family as soon as possible, so that I can continue to raise my children. 

Thank you for you time.


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