Connecticut Superior Court Judge E. Curtissa Cofield, 60, had a very interesting verbal exchange with a police officer, as he tried to charge her with DUI.
The video shows an uncooperative Cofield continually interrupting state police Sgt. Dwight Washington, who was asking a series of questions while processing her on the DUI charge at the Glastonbury police headquarters.
At 2:17 a.m. on Oct. 10, nearly two hours into the booking at headquarters, Cofield is seated at a desk and calls her husband on her cellphone. Washington, who like Cofield is black, is standing about 3 feet away.
Her end of the conversation, in part, is: "I don't need a ride home. ... I'm a criminal. ... What? What? ... Well, they got the head n----- in charge and he ... Which one, the head n----- in charge? ... Washington. OK. That's H-N-I-G...."
Then she hands the phone to Washington, who talks to her husband about getting the car off the highway. Washington asks, "Do you guys have Triple-A?"
Hearing that, Cofield interjects: "Oh, no. We don't. We're ghetto Negroes. We don't have Triple-A."
Earlier, when asked if she was injured, Cofield replied: "Yeah, I am. I'm humiliated by your f-----g attitude."
Asked if she was ill, Cofield replied, "I'm sick of being treated like a freaking Negro from the 'hood," and added: "Write it down, write it. Did you hear what I just said?"
Asked what her illness was, Cofield said: "Negro-itis."
"Do you need to take any medication now?" Washington asked.
"Yeah, I need to take anti-Negro, ummm ..."
When he asked what she weighed, Cofield replied: "Why don't you look at me, tell what you think?"
Asked how much alcohol she had had that day, Cofield replied: "I had no alcohol to drink, Mr. Washington."
Cofield often talked over Washington as he tried to question her, saying again and again that she needed to go to the bathroom. Washington politely insisted that she answer the questions first, and said that she could get to the bathroom sooner if she did so.
"That's your interpretation, but we'll see what they say in court, won't we, Mr. Washington?" she said.
Washington asked if she was willing to take an intoxication test. She replied: "Mr. Negro Washington. I need to go to the bathroom, and then I will take the test."
"It's Sgt. Washington," he replied, adding, "Don't disrespect me, and I won't disrespect you."
At another moment, after she had given a urine sample, Cofield asked Washington: "Do you have a reading on my urine test, Negro trooper?"
When asked to sign a form that she understood her rights, Cofield said, "I'm not signing anything, because when it comes down to the bottom line, who's smarter — me or you? We'll figure it out, won't we?"
Asked if she took any drugs, Cofield responded: "Oh, yeah, I'm a crack addict. Do I look like that to you?"
Then she directed her attention to the first state trooper on the scene of her accident and asked him, "Can you tell me why you came first, and then you had to bring him [Washington]? Is it because you had to make this valid by bringing a Negro?"
On Oct. 9 she sideswiped a parked state police cruiser with a police officer in it. Her eyes were bloodshot and that she smelled of alcohol. Urine samples showed her blood alcohol content was 0.16 percent at 1am on Oct. 10 and 0.17 percent at 2:04am, — twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
The state's Judicial Review Council will hold a hearing Feb. 9 to determine if the Judge Cofield should be removed from the bench.
Source: The Hartford Courant
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