Press Room

Qinxuan Pan has the next month and a half to review state-provided evidence against him in a state prison library, as a state judge continued the Yale murder case until Dec. 16.
State Superior Court Judge Gerald Harmon made that decision Friday midday at the end of a five-minute hearing in a sixth-floor courtroom at 235 Church St.
The hearing involved Pan, the MIT artificial intelligence researcher whom the state has charged with shooting and killing 26-year-old Yale grad student...

A state labor board has upheld the firing of former Police Officer Jason Santiago for kicking, pulling, and punching a handcuffed suspect — after a fellow cop recanted earlier testimony against his former colleague, but a different use-of-force expert condemned Santiago’s actions as worse than previously determined.
The Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration (SBMA) issued that decision last week. The Independent obtained a copy of the 20-page arbitration award on...

“I didn’t do anything, and the video proves it.”
So declared activist Barbara Fair, standing on the steps of the New Haven Courthouse surrounded by a crowd of supporters, Wednesday morning. Fair came to court for an initial appearance on a charge against her of interfering with police for actions that took place at a protest on the Green on July 8; she said that rather than accept a plea deal, she plans to fight the charge in court. She said she is confident that video...

A federal judge has ruled that a local anti-police-brutality activist has a legitimate free-speech argument to present to a jury about why a former top cop barred her from a weekly “CompStat” data-sharing meeting.
U.S. District Court Judge Stefan R. Underhill, a Clinton appointee, agreed in a decision released last week that activist Barbara Fair’s First Amendment rights might have been infringed and the case should proceed. The city had sought to have the case...

A Superior Court jury Monday morning acquitted Clarence Willoughby in a case that put the New Haven police department on trial as much as the ex-detective.
The six-member jury, which began deliberating Thursday, produced its verdict at 10:14 a.m.
Willoughby (at left in photo), 48, faced nine charges of forgery and larceny. The state accused him of pilfering thousands of dollars intended for police informants while serving as a New Haven detective. He was found not guilty...