Randy Cox Lawsuit: $45M Settlement and Officer Charges

The Randy Cox lawsuit ended in a $45 million settlement with the City of New Haven in June 2023, which his attorneys called the largest municipal police misconduct settlement in United States history.¹ The related criminal cases against the five New Haven officers wrapped up in early 2026: two pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and received suspended sentences, and the other three had their charges dismissed through a probation program.²

What Happened to Randy Cox

On June 19, 2022, New Haven police arrested Cox, then 36, on firearm and breach-of-peace charges that were later dismissed.³⁴ He was placed handcuffed in the back of a transport van with no seatbelts, only wall loops to hold. Officer Oscar Diaz was driving 36 miles per hour in a 25 zone when he braked hard for a car entering an intersection, throwing Cox headfirst into the van’s metal partition.⁵

Cox told officers he could not move. “I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” he said, according to the van’s cameras.⁶ Diaz did not call an ambulance at the scene and continued to the detention center.⁵

At the station, officers accused Cox of being drunk and faking. When he said he thought he had broken his neck, Sergeant Betsy Segui responded, “You ain’t crack nothing. You just drank too much.”⁶ Officers dragged him by his feet from the van, put him in a wheelchair, then dragged his limp body into a holding cell and cuffed his ankles.⁵ Doctors later confirmed a fractured cervical spine. Cox was left paralyzed from the chest down.³

The Federal Lawsuit Cox Filed

On September 27, 2022, Cox’s legal team filed a $100 million federal civil rights suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. The 29-page complaint named the City of New Haven and five officers as defendants: Oscar Diaz, Betsy Segui, Ronald Pressley, Jocelyn Lavandier, and Luis Rivera.⁷

The complaint alleged Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations through excessive force and denial of medical treatment, along with negligence, recklessness, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It faulted the city for failing to equip the van with adequate restraints and accused detention officers of using excessive force in dragging Cox into a cell.⁷⁸ Nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump represented Cox alongside local co-counsel from Weber and Rubano and attorney Jack O’Donnell.⁵ The city responded by asserting governmental immunity and contributory negligence.⁹

The $45 Million Settlement

On June 9, 2023, after a conference with a federal magistrate judge, the parties announced a $45 million settlement resolving all claims against the city.¹⁰ Cox’s attorneys described it as the largest municipal police misconduct settlement in the country’s history.¹¹ Mayor Justin Elicker said the figure was tied to the lifetime cost of care for a young man with paralyzing injuries, not to comparisons with other cases.¹²

How the Payment Was Funded

Three insurance carriers covered $30 million at $10 million each. The city was on the hook for the remaining $15 million plus up to $1 million in self-insured retention, roughly $16 million in all. On September 18, 2023, the Board of Alders voted unanimously to transfer $16 million from the city’s fiscal year 2022–2023 general fund surplus of $22.3 million into a litigation settlement account.¹³ Because the surplus covered the city’s share, New Haven withdrew a proposed bonding resolution, avoiding what Elicker said would have been additional interest costs.¹⁴

Criminal Cases Against the Five Officers

On November 28, 2022, state police arrested all five officers on misdemeanor charges of second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons, both class B misdemeanors. Each was released on $25,000 bond.¹⁵ New Haven State’s Attorney John Doyle prosecuted the cases in state Superior Court.¹⁶ Cox’s family and attorneys called the charges too lenient; Ben Crump said the officers would “at most see six months in jail” while Cox faced “a life sentence.”¹⁷

Segui and Pressley Guilty Pleas

In November 2025, former Sergeant Betsy Segui and former Officer Ronald Pressley each pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment. Both received 60-day suspended jail sentences, meaning no time behind bars so long as they complied with a six-month conditional discharge.⁶ Each plea included a nominal $15 fine.¹⁸

Charges Dismissed for Diaz, Lavandier, and Rivera

The other three officers rejected plea offers and were heading to a March 2026 trial when they applied for Connecticut’s accelerated rehabilitation program. On February 13, 2026, Judge David Zagaja granted the applications and dismissed all charges, stating that the officers’ conduct was “not malicious.” Under the program, the charges will be erased from their records.² Attorney Raymond Hassett, who represented one officer, said the dismissal rested on an “absence of sufficient evidence” and the lack of objection from the victim. Neither the State’s Attorney’s office nor Cox objected.¹⁸¹⁶

What Happened to the Officers’ Jobs

In June 2023, the New Haven Board of Police Commissioners fired four officers: Diaz, Segui, Lavandier, and Rivera. Pressley had already retired, sidestepping the internal investigation, and was later decertified by the state.¹⁸¹⁶

The firings did not hold for everyone. Diaz challenged his termination through state arbitration. In January 2024, the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration found the city lacked “just cause” for firing him. The board acknowledged Diaz had been speeding and using a cell phone while driving but concluded there was insufficient evidence tying those actions to Cox’s injuries. It ordered his termination replaced with a 15-day unpaid suspension and back pay.¹⁹ Diaz returned to the department on January 13, 2025, on administrative duties while completing updated training. Mayor Elicker said the city stood by its original decision but had to comply.²⁰

Segui’s separate arbitration appeal was denied.²⁰ Appeals by Lavandier and Rivera were still pending as of early 2026.²¹

Policy Changes and the Randy Cox Bill

New Haven added seatbelts to its transport vans and shifted most prisoner transports to marked police vehicles.²²²³²⁴

The Connecticut legislature also passed what came to be called the Randy Cox Bill. It directed the state’s Police Officer Standards and Training Council to create a statewide policy requiring seatbelts for all suspects in police transport vehicles. Co-sponsored by Democratic State Representative Anne Hughes and Republican State Representative Craig Fishbein, the bill cleared the state House 140-0 and received final Senate approval on June 5, 2023. Officers who fail to comply can lose their state certification.²⁵²⁶

Where Randy Cox Is Now

As of February 2026, Cox remains paralyzed. State’s Attorney John Doyle said he “can now move his head and his hands a bit but otherwise is paralyzed.”¹⁶ According to his attorney, Louis Rubano, Cox used part of the settlement to buy a home where he lives with his mother, Doreen Coleman, his primary caregiver, with help from medical professionals. Cox did not attend the November 2025 plea hearings and did not object to the February 2026 dismissals; Rubano said the family wanted the criminal cases to end because the proceedings forced them to “re-live the events of that tragic day.”⁶

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