HARTFORD — A top official for the state Department of Correction offered a new twist to the legal debate over whether to release footage showing the death of J’Allen Jones at Garner Correctional Institution in 2018, offering to provide viewings to the public of limited portions of the video, without releasing the footage into the public domain.
The offer was made in testimony by Department of Correction Deputy Commissioner William Mulligan during a hearing at Hartford Superior Court on Friday to decide whether to seal the video from the public in the civil lawsuit filed by Jones’ estate.
Jones died in 2018 after being struck, hooded, placed in full body restraints, pepper sprayed and sedated while being transferred to another cell in the prison by as many as nine correction staff.
31-years-old, Black and diagnosed with schizophrenia, Jones was serving a 10-year sentence for armed robbery.
The Office of Attorney General William Tong, which is representing corrections staff in the case, has asked the court to keep the video sealed.
Attorneys for Jones’ estate, joined in separate filings by Connecticut ACLU and CT Examiner, have asked Judge Claudia Baio to release the entire footage to the public.
The ACLU is appealing its denial to intervene in the case. The judge has yet to rule on a motion by CT Examiner.
Before hearing from attorneys on Friday, Baio allowed members of the public to address the court on the issue.
“I want the world to see what happened to my child,” Jessica Jones, J’Allen Jones’ mother, told the court. Jones said she had not yet been allowed to watch the video and pleaded to the judge.
“I need to see how my son died,” she said.
Lynette Richardson, J’Allen Jones’ fiancée, told the court that she too had not seen the video, but that it was her belief that the video would dispel what she said were false and misleading narratives offered by state officials regarding Jones’ death.
Alex Taubes, who is representing CT Examiner, told Judge Baio the public had an immense interest in seeing the footage. Taubes said that when one branch of government tries to convince another branch that there should be no consequences for Jones’ death, the public needs to know why.
Taubes also questioned whether the legal arguments made by the Attorney General met the legal standard to prevent disclosure.
“Respectfully,” Taubes told the court, “it doesn’t even come close.”
DeVaughn Ward, the new ombudsman for the Department of Correction, also called for the court to unseal the video, citing a number of previous occasions when video footage from inside of prisons had been released to the public.
After public comment, lawyers for the Office of the Attorney General called Deputy Commissioner William Mulligan as a witness.
Mulligan told the court that disclosure of the video could pose a significant safety risk to correction staff.
In his testimony, Mulligan, who said he had seen the entire video of Jones’ death, broke the footage into three “phases.”
The first phase, Mulligan said, showed Jones escorted to a cell in the prison.
Phase two, he said, showed Jones noncompliant with a strip search and the struggle with corrections staff leading to his death.
Phase three, Mulligan said, showed staff performing CPR on Jones and officers and medical personnel transferring Jones into an ambulance.
But warning against the full release, Mulligan said the video revealed blindspots for surveillance cameras, the location of metal detectors, staff placement, room numbers, and staff use of prison radio to open doors.
The video, he said, showed how to escape prison from a cell.
Only the second phase of the video could be safely released, Mulligan told Judge Baio, and only under limited circumstances.
“The internet video is forever,” he said. “It’s there to be studied.”
But in cross-examination by Attorney Ron Murphy, for the Jones estate, Mulligan conceded that the offer in the 7-year-old case was a recent decision made in consultation with lawyers for the Attorney General.
Murphy asked if Mulligan had any aspirations of becoming the Commissioner of the Department of Correction, which Mulligan denied.
Murphy then began an intense line of questioning, asking Mulligan to explain how exactly the video footage could be used to aid an escape.
In his final argument, Murphy referred to Mulligan’s testimony as “imaginary fears.”
“This is the United States of America, not Russia,” he said.
Rather than issuing a ruling on Friday, Baio gave attorneys until Oct. 10 to file final briefs on the matter. She said she would watch the footage within the next two weeks to help her make a decision.