While one of them stood guard at the door, three others confronted an employee in the back of the store, beat him senseless and arrested him on a trumped-up charge.

That's what the Police Department's investigative arm, the Office of Internal Affairs, claims happened on the afternoon of April 18, 2004.

But the city's Board of Police Commissioners, after a series of nine meetings, recently cleared the officers — Douglas Bepko, Bruno Rodriguez, Christopher Stepniewski and David Uliano — of using excessive force in the arrest of Carlos Diaz.

And while commissioners agreed that Rodriguez, Bepko and Stepniewski used poor judgment in their arrest of Diaz — on charges that were later dismissed in Superior Court — the board determined that discipline against the officers is "not warranted."

The Connecticut Post obtained copies of both the internal affairs and board reports on the case and also reviewed transcripts of the board's hearings.

Board members and the lawyers for two officers contend that the transcripts do not provide the real flavor of the hearings, which were closed to the public.

"Just reading documentation doesn't necessarily give you the full flavor of the proceeding," said Police Commissioner Theresa Brown, who chaired the hearings.

"Sitting through all the hearings and observing all the evidence and having had the opportunity, over an extensive amount of time, to weigh that evidence and discuss it, we did not believe that the evidence we had was sufficient to sustain the charges of excessive force," Brown said. "We were comfortable as a board with our decision that, while there clearly were things we were concerned about, our obligation is to weigh the evidence before us and we did not feel as a board that in comparing all the evidence that it was sufficient to sustain the charge of excessive force."

But Commissioner Ramon Larracuente said he is uncomfortable with the situation.

Larracuente abstained in the board's decision because he said he missed a couple of hearings. And while he said Brown told him he could vote after reading the transcripts, he declined.

While Larracuente stressed he does not disagree with the board's verdict, he said he is not at ease with some aspects of the case.

"I was not comfortable with the whole shebang in terms of what had brought it about," he explained. "There are a lot of things contradictory to the verdict but [the other commissioners] must have had a justification for deciding what they did."

Diaz, 29, says he is dumb-founded by the board's decision.

The Stratford resident, who is married with two children, and has no prior criminal record, maintains he did nothing wrong.

"The officers opened my head with a gun butt after throwing me to the floor and I did nothing to them," he said. "I don't know why they said the officers did nothing wrong. "It's just not right."

His lawyer, Gary Mastronardi, has his own explanation. Mastronardi recently filed a lawsuit against the Police Department and the officers.

"I'm not at all surprised by the board's actions. Clearly it's an attempt by the Police Commission to protect the city from the millions of dollars they are going to have to pay in the case," the lawyer said.

Two days before the Diaz incident, Officer Rodriguez lost his personal cell phone in the East Side neighborhood during a chase. Later that day, while searching for it, he entered the Vega Alta grocery store on Brooks Street. No one in the store owned by Diaz's mother-in-law had seen it.

On April 18 — a Sunday — Diaz was working in the store.

While walking on East Main Street on his lunch break, he said he was approached by a man he describes as a crackhead, who offered to sell him a cell phone. Diaz said he bought it for $10.

Diaz was stacking cans of soda on a shelf in the back of the store when the officers arrived about 3:30 p.m. While Uliano stood in the front of the store, facing the door, the other three officers went to the back, where they confronted Diaz.

Both Diaz and a 14-year-old boy who was sitting outside the store testified that they heard one of the officers say, "Where's that [expletive] Carlos."

Diaz said Bepko knocked him against the refrigerator face-first, put his knee in Diaz's back and hit him in the side with his fist. He said Rodriguez then accused Diaz of having his cell phone.

He continued that Bepko handcuffed one of his wrists and threw him face down on the floor. Rodriguez kicked him and put his foot on his neck, Diaz said. Rodriguez recovered his cell phone from Diaz and, while Diaz lay on the floor handcuffed, Diaz says Stepniewski pulled out his gun and hit him in the side of the head with it. Diaz claims the other officers began punching and kicking him.

Diaz had a gash on the side of his head, behind his right ear, and there was blood smeared on the floor where he said he had been lying.

Diaz was charged with interfering with a police officer, assault and unlawful liquor sales.

Diaz was taken by ambulance to Bridgeport Hospital, where the head gash was closed. The physician's assistant and the doctor who treated Diaz at the hospital told the police board that they did not recall treating him. They noted in the hospital report he had a blow to the head but nothing else. Both said if Diaz had told them he had been beaten by officers they would have put it in their report.

Diaz contends Bepko was with him in the hospital, assuring he said nothing about the incident. He said Bepko told the physician's assistant to hurry with the treatment because Diaz was going to jail.

In its report, the police board concedes there was "conflicting and confusing" testimony from the officers about why they had gone to the grocery store. The OIA goes further, stating the officers' testimony was "false."

Uliano told OIA that Rodriguez and Bepko suggested at a police roll call that they check for liquor violations at the grocery store, even though there had been no such violations previously. However, he testified before the board that he was not sure why the officers went there.

Bepko and Rodriguez testified they went to the store on their way to get coffee. They said they stopped at the store because they saw a man sitting outside drinking a beer. However, they didn't arrest the man, question him or get his name. The 14-year-old boy and Diaz denied there was anyone outside drinking beer.

Rodriguez, Bepko and Stepniewski testified that Stepniewski and Uliano arrived at the scene when Rodriguez called for cover. However, no call was ever made.

Stepniewski testified he saw Diaz shove Bepko. Rodriguez said Diaz shoved Stepniewski, then Bepko. Rodriguez also said Bepko took Diaz to the ground but Bepko claimed he never touched Diaz.

"The officers' account of the purportedly random series of events that lead up to officer Rodriguez coincidentally recovering his cell phone from Mr. Diaz is not believable," the OIA states in its report. "Mr. Diaz has been consistent in his account of what happened during his testimony and in his initial citizen's complaint and his Internal Affairs statement. "The fact that Mr. Diaz was in possession of Officer Rodriguez's phone, either by bad luck or poor judgment, does not provide an excuse for Officers Bepko, Rodriguez and Stepniewski to assault him."

But both Rodriguez's lawyer, John R. Gulash, and Bepko's attorney, Michael Fitzpatrick, said they and the board found Diaz's testimony to be not believable.

"The board had an opportunity to assess his credibility in a more meaningful light, with direct and cross examination," Gulash said. "The complainant testified he was repeatedly kicked in the forehead, yet his forehead was clean as a whistle," Fitzpatrick added. "If you are going to lie about your injuries, why should the board believe your account?"