City cop prevails in labor dispute

04/06/2006

William Kaempffer , Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — The Police Department has been ordered to restore to full duty and pay lost wages to the officer who fatally shot an armed man in the elevator of a public housing complex for senior citizens in 2004. Elliot Rosa, 26, had been on restricted duty for the last 18 months since he shot Mack Lucky, 57, in an off-duty confrontation inside 904 Howard Ave.

In a decision released Wednesday, the American Arbitration Association concluded that the city violated the union contract when it kept Rosa on administrative status — and ineligible for overtime and extra-duty work — even after he was cleared of wrongdoing and a psychologist ruled that he was fit to return to the street.

Sgt. Louis Cavaliere, the union president, said the decision is important because it restricts a police chief’s discretion to indefinitely keep an officer on restricted duty and not have to account for it.

Rosa will be paid about $15,000 in lost wages based on the average monthly income he had from overtime and private duty jobs before he was put on restricted duty and when the psychologist cleared him. Rosa earned his base salary while he worked mainly in the police records room for those 18 months.

While Rosa had been restricted to inside work, nine other officers involved in two subsequent and less controversial fatal shootings have been back on the streets for a year.

Emmet P. Hibson Jr., the city’s director of labor relations, said the city was disappointed with the decision and would examine options to vacate the award.

The Lucky shooting sparked outrage in the public housing community and prompted the Housing Authority of New Haven to temporarily suspend its Officer in Residency program.

Rosa was moving into the building on Nov. 8, 2004, as part of that program when he shot Lucky after the resident pulled a knife on him. The housing authority had permitted officers to live rent-free in housing units in exchange for services, such as addressing security concerns.

Rosa was bringing his dog upstairs when Lucky complained that the dog wasn’t permitted. They argued, and both got into the same elevator.

When the doors opened, Lucky was dead after Rosa said he pulled a knife and menaced him.

Last year, Lucky’s estate filed a wrongful death suit against Rosa and the city.

The main argument in arbitration was whether the psychologist, in issuing his finding, set any conditions on Rosa’s return to full duty.

In the report, the psychologist gave Rosa the all clear, but added that it was his "strong recommendation" that Rosa return for some type of counseling in order to "ventilate and express his understandably strong and angry feelings about the way he was treated by the public and others" after the incident.

Hibson said the city and Chief Francisco Ortiz viewed that as a condition of his return with which Rosa hasn’t complied.

Ken DeLoreznzo, the lawyer for the police union, argued that the recommendation was just that, and not contingent on his return.

On Wednesday, it was not known when Rosa would return to street duty. Neither Rosa nor Ortiz were available for comment Wednesday.