Community Corner
Jury Picked in Brutality Trial of Meriden Police Officer Evan Cossette
Cossettee, who is also the son of the Meriden police chief, is accused of shoving a prisoner's head into a concrete wall and lying about it to investigators. He's scheduled to go trial on May 28.
A federal judge in New Haven has picked all of the jurors that will preside over the case of Evan Cossette, a Meriden police officer arrested last year on police brutality charges.
According to The Record-Journal, Judge Janet Bond Arterton selected 10 men and four women during a jury selection period that started last week and ended Tuesday. The trial is set to start on May and end no later than June 7, the newspaper reported.
Cossette, indicted by the federal government last year, is accused of shoving a prison whose hands were cuffed while being held inside a holding cell at the Meriden Police Department in 2010.
The victim received a head injury as a result. Cossette, the son of Police Chief Jeffry Cossette, was indicted by a grand jury that issued two counts, including a charge that Evan Cossette lied on official police reports about the incident.
Under the indictment, Cossette is charged with one count of use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000.
He is also charged with one count of obstruction of a federal investigation by preparing a false report, which carries a maximum prison term of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.
Cossette has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
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