This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
09/05/2023 12:48 PMAccording to a report by the New Haven Register, earlier this summer, the Town of Old Saybrook reached a nearly $250,000 settlement with a man who said he was bitten by an Old Saybrook police dog four years ago.
According to an Aug. 8 article by Meghan Friedmann in the New Haven Register, in June, the town settled a lawsuit that paid Edward Riccio $249,500 after he says he was bitten by an old Saybrook Police dog and beaten by two former Old Saybrook Police Officers. The defendants in the case, former officers Tyler Schulz and Justin Hanna, as well as the Town of Old Saybrook denied “any and all liability” as part of the settlement.
Friedmann reported that the money would be paid by The Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Association, Old Saybrook’s insurance company.
“The money received can never replace what was done to my client. Not only the physical injuries but the emotional and psychological damage he has to live with as well, “ Riccio’s attorney, A. Paul Spinella Spinella said.
The Case
According to a filing in Connecticut District Court, Riccio was driving on the highway in November 2019 when his car crashed. According to the complaint, Riccio claims he was disoriented after the crash and walked down the highway, where he eventually encountered then-Old Saybrook Police Officer Schulz and allegedly asked him for help.
However, according to the article in the Register, Schulz commanded the dog to attack after Riccio ignored his orders to get on the ground. Riccio received injuries to his leg from the bite and alleged that while he was on the ground, Schulz and Hanna beat him with their fists. Video footage does not show any alleged beating.
Riccio alleged that as a result of the encounter, he “required three eye surgeries to repair a detached retina in his left eye,” that his vision is now permanently impaired, and that he requires continuing psychological treatment for trauma, according to the complaint. Riccio initially filed his lawsuit in 2021.
Spinella called the case “horrendous” and “one of the worst dog bite cases” he’s ever seen.
As for the officers involved in the case, Hanna is no longer employed by the Old Saybrook Police Department and is an officer in a different town.
Schulz is also no longer employed by the department and has a more tumultuous recent history. Schulz resigned from the department in 2022 after an internal investigation showed he had admitted to participating in sexual acts while on duty and intentionally damaging department property. Earlier that same year, he was handed a 90-day unpaid suspension for allegedly choking one person and pushing another while intoxicated at an Essex restaurant. The state declined to prosecute that case.
Furthermore, in 2020, Schulz was again a codefendant in a lawsuit that alleged he let his police dog bite a woman while she was pinned to the floor by another officer. The town settled that case for $190,000 in an agreement that did not admit wrongdoing.
First Selectman Carl Fortuna declined to comment on the settlement.