Man claims New Fairfield cop used excessive force following parking argument

Man claims New Fairfield cop used excessive force following parking argument

BRIDGEPORT — A New Fairfield man is suing a police officer who, he claims, used excessive force following an argument over a parking spot.

Paul Delgardo, 76, filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court against New Fairfield Police Officer David Koonitsky.

“This is an action for money damages to redress the deprivation by the defendant of rights secured to the plaintiff to be free from excessive force and the denial of substantive due process rights afforded by the constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Connecticut,” the suit states.

Delgardo’s lawyer, Robert Berke, of Bridgeport, declined comment on the lawsuit.

Koonitsky, of Stratford, joined the New Fairfield Police Department in 2015 after 23 years as a state trooper. He was unavailable for comment.

Town officials did not immediately return calls for comment on the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, on Dec. 2, 2019, Koonitsky and another officer were dispatched to Heron View Road, New Fairfield, for a disturbance. Delgardo and his neighbor were engaged in a verbal disagreement over a parking spot, the suit states.

When the officers arrived, the neighbor’s wife was yelling, “we will park where we want,” the suit states.

Delgardo was in the process of responding from his front porch when, the suit states, Koonitsky aggressively charged at Delgardo, jumped over the handrail of the porch, placed Delgardo in an arm bar and slammed him on the ground and into an evergreen bush.

When Koonitsky was confronted by neighbors for being so rough with a senior citizen the suit states he responded, “you never know what they would do next.”

The lawsuit continues that Delgardo was transported from the scene by ambulance after having suffered a seizure.

Delgardo was charged by Koonitsky with second-degree threatening, second-degree breach of peace and interfering with an officer. Those charges are pending in Superior Court in Danbury.

The suit states that Delgardo was not combative or aggressive and did not verbally or physically interfere or resist with the officers.

It claims Delgardo suffered extensive bruising and severe pain and injury to his arm and shoulder which required surgery to repair torn ligaments and tendons.