Officers Accused Of Harassing Latinos Await Verdict

HARTFORD — The federal trial of two police officers accused of harassing Latinos in a Connecticut town concluded here on Wednesday with lawyers in the case presenting very different views of the officers and how they did their jobs.

The officers, Dennis Spaulding and David Cari, were among several members of the East Haven Police Department implicated in a Justice Department investigation. In closing arguments, the federal prosecutor in the case characterized the officers as part of a racially motivated conspiracy to intimidate the town’s Hispanic residents and a local priest who came to their aid.

Defense lawyers for the two officers called the idea of a conspiracy a myth. “We don’t have racial profiling,” said Frank J. Riccio, the lawyer for Officer Spaulding. “We have enforcement of the law regardless of race, color or creed.”

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