CT correction officer faces assault charge for allegedly striking inmate in face multiple times

A Connecticut Department of Correction officer has been arrested by state police for allegedly striking an uncooperative inmate in the face multiple times last summer while he was defenseless on the ground, sending him to the hospital.

Christopher Carlson, 33, was arrested Wednesday on one count of third-degree assault, according to Connecticut State Police.

After turning himself in at Troop H in Hartford, he was released on a $5,000 non-surety bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Hartford Superior Court on July 12.

A spokesperson for the DOC said Friday that Carlson “has been out on worker’s compensation” since Aug. 19, 2023.

According to the warrant affidavit, the inmate Carlson has been accused of assaulting was involved in an altercation with another inmate on Aug. 12, 2023, just after 8:45 p.m., prompting a code blue in the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.

Correction officers could not initially determine which inmates were involved, so they sent each inmate into the cell and reviewed video surveillance footage, the warrant affidavit said. Upon identifying one of the inmates, correction officers approached his cell to take him to the Restrictive Housing Unit, but he allegedly covered the cell window with some kind of object, the warrant affidavit said.

The inmate allegedly refused when asked several times to uncover the cell window, so correction officers used a chemical similar to mace, at which point the inmate cleared the window, according to the warrant affidavit. Officers pulled the inmate from the cell and he reportedly fell to the ground, taking multiple correction officers with him.

A struggle reportedly ensued on the ground between the inmate and several officers, after which he was handcuffed and it was discovered that he had suffered an injury to his eye during the incident, the warrant affidavit said. Medics evaluated the inmate and sent him to UConn Hospital for further treatment.

The nature of the inmate’s injuries was redacted from the warrant affidavit before state police released it.

Following the incident, Carlson reported to his supervisor that he was elbowed in the face and suffered an injury. He did not report any use of force against the inmate, the warrant affidavit said.

Carlson and his supervisor were placed on administrative leave after multiple witnesses alleged that Carlson had struck the inmate several times during the struggle, the warrant affidavit said. At that point, state police began investigating.

According to the warrant affidavit, state police reportedly found that surveillance did not clearly show how the inmate suffered his injuries.

Investigators interviewed 33 people who could have witnessed what happened, finding that five of them alleged that the inmate was struck a number of times in the face while he was defenseless on the ground, the warrant affidavit said. The others said they could not see very well what was going on during the scuffle. Those who could see claimed that the inmate was punched between two to six times.

Of the five who alleged that they saw the inmate being struck, three of them identified Carlson as the alleged aggressor, the warrant affidavit said. The two others said they could not tell who was hitting the man.

When state police investigators interviewed Carlson in February, he walked them through what happened and never mentioned the inmate being struck, the warrant affidavit said. He reportedly told investigators he assumed the man suffered his injury from hitting his face on the concrete floor.

When pushed repeatedly about the allegations that he struck the inmate, Carlson each time denied ever hitting him and said that if he had struck him, he would have “had no problem documenting it in his paperwork,” state police wrote in the warrant affidavit.

When state police told Carlson that other witnesses they interviewed alleged that he has a reputation for “being heavy-handed when it comes to use of force,” he said the DOC keeps records of all use of force incidents and that his personnel file would show he had never been investigated for using excessive force, according to the warrant affidavit.

State police noted that the DOC’s use of force policy states that “the amount of force used shall be reasonable and appropriate to the circumstances based on the situation.” It also states that “physical force shall be reasonably related to the degree and duration necessary to achieve its authorized objective”.

State police concluded that the inmate had numerous correction officers on top of him while he was face down and had an “extremely limited” range of motion with his elbow, the warrant affidavit said.

“Even if (the inmate’s) elbow had struck Officer Carlson’s face in the struggle to place his hands in restraints, it would be unreasonable to identify as an immediate threat to anyone on scene,” state police wrote. “Therefore, based on the totality of the circumstances of this incident, it would be neither reasonable nor appropriate for any officer to have delivered numerous strikes to (his) face.”