By Dirk Perrefort and Barry Lytton
The News-Times
REDDING, Conn. — A month after losing his young wife and becoming a single father to his 15-month-old son, Peter Valenti III texted his friends.
“Call Redding Police,” he wrote. Then he went to the shed next to his home, strung a rope from the rafters and hanged himself.
Fifteen minutes after Valenti’s text, police arrived at the home on Blueberry Hill Road, but didn’t find him for another seven minutes.
According to a lawsuit filed this week by Valenti’s family, none of the officers got close enough to determine whether he was dead, and another 26 minutes passed before an EMT was allowed to examine him.
When medical personnel finally tested the 32-year-old with a portable electronic cardiac monitor, they were able to detect “electrical cardiac activity,’ the suit said. Police then cut Valenti down and medical personnel attempted to revive him with CPR before sending him to Danbury Hospital.
But it was too late. At 12:40 p.m. on April 11, 2016, Valenti was pronounced dead.
“This was an avoidable outcome, and we are seeking justice for the family, who want answers,” said Gerard McEnery, the family’s attorney. “We have all come to appreciate what first responders do on our behalf, but in this particular case the lack of attention and response was so glaring that we had to react.”
The Valenti family’s 193-page complaint argues that the town, the police department, Chief Doug Fuchs, Capt. Mark O’Donnell, Sgt. J. Peter Quinn, Officer Jenna Matthews and dispatcher Stephen Peterson were all negligent in the case.
Redding town and police officials, including Fuchs and First Selectman Julia Pemberton, did not respond Thursday to repeated requests for comment. Town attorney James Tallberg declined to comment.
The lawsuit argues that Fuchs and several officers failed to follow standard protocols after arriving at Valenti’s home.
Body-camera video from Officer Matthews shows police searching the property for about 7 1/2 minutes before Matthews opened the shed door. Then she shouted, “Holy sh—. Look in there, there’s a f—— dummy hanging by a noose.”
She quickly realized that what she thought was a dummy was actually Valenti, but it does not appear from the video that she checked him for vital signs. The lawsuit said that no other officers did so, either.
Minutes later, Emergency Medical Technician Sean Morris arrived, but when he tried to pull into the driveway, police told him to stop, and he was not allowed to examine Valenti for another 12 minutes, the suit said.
Fuchs is heard on the video saying, “This is now a crime scene, OK?”
When O’Donnell asked whether officers should “cut him down,” the suit said, Fuchs said no.
Fuchs then asked Matthews, “Is he definitely dead?”
“Well, I mean, I thought it was a dummy,” she replied. “It looked like he’s gone.”
According to an expert cited in the lawsuit, but whose name was not given, “established standards of care” require that a hanging victim be cut down promptly so breathing obstructions are removed. First responders should then check for a pulse and immediately begin lifesaving measures such as CPR, the expert said.
McEnery declined to identify the expert.
All police officers on Blueberry Hill Road that day were trained Emergency Medical Responders and are required to provide any medical assistance necessary to victims until an EMT or paramedic arrives, the lawsuit contends.
“It is my opinion that there was negligence in the care and treatment of Peter Valenti by Police Chief Fuchs and other other officers present in that they failed to assess Peter Valenti, failed to determine wither he was alive and failed to provide CPR, or any first-aid to him at all,” the expert states in filing.
Among the 47 counts levied in the suit is a claim that Fuchs “intentionally inflicted emotional distress” on Valenti’s father, Peter Valenti Jr.
Fuchs told the elder Valenti that his son was dead before anyone had taken the man’s pulse, the suit said.
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