Missing Document Tees Up Firefighter Wrongful-Death Case For Trial

By Brandon Cortes, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — More than five years after New Haven firefighter William McMillian died by suicide, a police form documenting what officers knew about him the morning they arrested him — but then let him go — has never been found.

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That still-missing Lethality Assessment Protocol (LAP) form has led a judge to find that a jury could "infer" that the document was deliberately hidden or destroyed.

State Superior Court Judge Matthew E. Frechette issued that ruling on Nov. 2 as he denied motions by the City of New Haven and three police officers to throw out a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in October 2022 by McMillian's mother, Angela Ruffin, on behalf of her son's estate.

McMillian's estate is seeking $2.5 million in damages from the city on the grounds that police should have taken William McMillian into custody — and should have checked to see if he owned a gun — back in May 2021.

That's when McMillian allegedly broke into his ex-girlfriend's home and was arrested by city police. Instead of taking him into custody and checking to see if he owned any guns, police issued him a promise to appear. McMillian died by suicide several hours later.

Frechette wrote on Nov. 2 that there is "overwhelming evidence to show that a jury could conclude that the defendants disregarded their ministerial duties" under state law and police department rules. "Both required that the defendants arrest McMillian."

Click here to read Frechette's ruling.

The ruling does not find the city or the officers liable. It means the case can go to trial. Trial is scheduled for May 2027, according to the family's lawyers.

City spokesperson Lenny Speiller said the city "has agreed to submit the case to mediation before a judge in a good faith effort to attempt to fairly and appropriately resolve the matter."

"They cut corners and lost crucial evidence," Bert McDowell Jr, one of the family's attorneys, said in a statement about how the city and the police handled this case.

"Where is the LAP form?" he asked, referring to a Lethality Assessment Protocol (LAP) – a screening tool officers use in domestic violence cases to gauge whether a victim is at high risk. "That is the question that they cannot answer."

McMillian, a 27-year-old New Haven native and Hamden resident, died on May 6, 2021.

Hundreds of mourners, many in uniform, filled Bethel AME Church on Goffe Street for his funeral a week later.

According to the judge's Nov. 2 ruling, McMillian entered his former girlfriend's home through a window early in the morning back in May 2021, days after they broke up. She ordered him out and he tried to get in again through another window. She called 911.

By the time Officers Yalexa Melendez and Marlena Ofiara arrived, McMillian had left.

His former girlfriend told the two officers that McMillian was intoxicated, had been acting erratically and threateningly since the breakup, and owned several firearms. She said she feared "backlash" for calling the police.

Melendez called Sgt. Jasmine Sanders for guidance; Sanders in turn contacted Sgt. Louis DeCrescenzo, the supervisor in charge of the shift. After that conversation, Sanders told Melendez not to take McMillian into custody and to issue him misdemeanor summons for trespass and breach of peace instead.

Ofiara filled out a LAP form. The officers then drove to McMillian's home and handed him the summons. They did not check for or seize his guns.

Later that day, McMillian died by suicide.

Connecticut law says that when an officer determines a family violence crime has been committed, "such officer shall arrest the person suspected of its commission."

New Haven Police Department rules bar issuing summonses in domestic violence cases and require officers to check for weapons.

Immediately after McMillian's death, then-Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez ordered an Internal Affairs investigation. In a report completed Sept. 10, 2021 — which Frechette called "highly critical" — Sgt. Christopher Fennessy found the officers violated state law and department orders that required McMillian's arrest. Some of the officers were disciplined, according to the ruling. Sanders was suspended 16 days, instead of the six months that Dominguez had initially recommended. Officer Melendez was given a ten-day suspension to serve within six months of issuance. Both Sgt. DeCrescenzo and Officer Ofiara were not disciplined, as Internal Affairs found that they had not done anything wrong.

The officers's own statements, cited in the ruling, describe disagreement that morning.

Melendez said in a deposition she wanted to arrest McMillian.

"I wanted to do custodial arrest," she said.

She told Internal Affairs she changed course because Sanders is "my sergeant and I was following orders," and that she "should've done a weapons check."

Ofiara told the investigators that "charges were not severe enough for someone breaking into your house," and that she knew department rules required a firearms check.

Sanders told investigators, "If it was me, personally, I probably would have arrested him, but the order came from" DeCrescenzo.

Sanders said she told DeCrescenzo that McMillian had entered through a window and was a firefighter and that DeCrescenzo responded, "We look out for what we have to look out for, and we do what we can to help… Trespass is fine… It's not really home invasion."

DeCrescenzo gave Internal Affairs a different account. He said Sanders told him McMillian had not gone inside, but was knocking on the windows and doors. The Internal Affairs report found Sanders' claim about DeCrescenzo's order contradicted his statement. It also said body-camera footage "suggested that Sergeant Sanders may have known about McMillian prior to this incident."

DeCrescenzo is not a defendant in the lawsuit. McDowell declined to say why.

Sanders acknowledged to investigators the stakes of such calls.

"With domestic violence especially, you know, with firearms, that's very important and something we don't take lightly. And people have access to firearms and emotions, you don't know what could happen," she said.

LAP forms are supposed to be returned to the police station. Fennessy wrote that he was "unable to locate the LAP form" in the department's records system and that it was "never scanned as an electronic record."

The detective in charge of the forms, John Folch, could not find it either.

Asked whether the form has since been found, Speiller said Monday that "it has not been located."

Fennessy concluded that "the LAP form was never returned into the Patrol Division."

"The jury could use the LAP form's disappearance to infer that it was deliberately hidden or destroyed to conceal evidence of the defendants' negligence because it was last in the defendants' possession," Frechette wrote.

The city and officers argued in court filings that McMillian's death was an intentional act that broke the chain of responsibility for the city and the police department. The judge disagreed, citing the estate's expert psychiatrist, who said McMillian was in an acute crisis and would not have died had he been given time to "cool off."

"Firefighter McMillian's death, and the events leading up to it, were a tragedy and the New Haven Fire Department continues to mourn his passing," Speiller said in a statement. "The city will continue to engage in the legal process in good faith and work towards an appropriate resolution to this matter."

According to Officer Christian Bruckhart, Sanders and DeCresenzo and Ofiara are still with the department. He said Melendez has since voluntarily resigned from the police department for personal reasons.

Sanders and her attorney did not respond to requests for comments.

In a joint statement, McDowell and attorney Ron Etemi said McMillian's family "came to us seeking accountability from the New Haven Police Department. The Department refused to accept it." They called McMillian "a beloved father, son and friend."

"We feel that had the New Haven Police Department did their job that night, Mr. McMillian will be with his loving family today," McDowell said.

The ruling comes as the city has agreed to pay — or been ordered to pay — tens of millions of dollars in recent years following other lawsuits regarding New Haven police misconduct.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.