Cops in the Courts II: Portrait of a Watchdog

Abstract

Attorney John R. Williams has taken on the New Haven Police Department and slammed it harder than it has ever been hit before. Since last September the 30-year-old lawyer from Fargo, North Dakota, has brought more than $5 million in federal lawsuits against at least eight detectives and as many high department officials including Biagio DiLieto, Chief of the New Haven Police Department. The suits charge them with framing innocent people on drug violation, perjuring themselves at trial, coercing addicts to become informants by vicious beatings, threats and offers of a constant supply of narcotics and with actually supplying hard drugs. Williams charges that New Haven policemen, particularly those involved in narcotics enforcement, use illegal police techniques as common practice. He says more than 90 per cent of all drug cases involve one or more form of police misconduct.