When the O’Donnell family gathered for a FaceTime call recently, 2 1/2-year-old Andrew asked why his daddy was in bed and not wearing his police uniform.
In an interview Tuesday, Kristen O’Donnell said she explained to her son that James O’Donnell, a Farmington police officer, was working hard and needed to catch up on his sleep.
The hard truth that the toddler was spared is that his father has a long, painful and uncertain recovery ahead after a suspected thief crushed him while fleeing from police on Sept. 20. Police said Tuesday they have arrested Pedro Acevedo of New Britain in the incident.
O’Donnell was caught between the stolen car Acevedo was driving and a cruiser, police said. A surgeon at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford told her, Kristen O’Donnell said, that her husband’s lower body was “smashed.”
“They had to give him a tremendous amount of fentanyl to keep the pain even able to be controlled,” she said.
O’Donnell suffered a broken sacrum, the triangular bone between the hip bones, a broken right foot and too many fractures of his pelvic region for the doctors to even count, his wife said. He is recovering at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford.
Asked whether surgeons have offered a long-term prognosis, she said, “We can’t even talk about walking... He’s alive. We have him on Earth.”
O’Donnell said she was sleeping at the couple’s home at about 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 20 when her German Shepherd started barking “like someone was killing her.” Someone was at the door, but O’Donnell said she was suspicious because of the hour. She said she thought maybe it was local police seeking camera footage from the home security system because of all the car burglaries and car thefts that have plagued the area and other parts of the state.
“I opened the door three inches and he said, ‘Police,’ and I said, ‘My husband’s a cop. I’m not opening the door....’ He said, ‘Kris, Kris — James was in an accident. He was hit by a car.’ ”
“I stepped away from the door,” she said. “I thought I was going to faint.”
Kristen O’Donnell, 39, works for the state Judicial Branch in New Haven juvenile court. She and James, 31, met when he was working as a marshal in Bridgeport Superior Court. They have two children, Andrew and a 6-month-old daughter, Saoirse.
The kids cannot see their father in person because of COVID-19 restrictions at Gaylord, Kristen O’Donnell said. Before he comes home, the couple’s house will have to be fitted with ramps and other accommodations, Kristen O’Donnell said.
She said she was not sure when James will be released. He cannot put any weight on his lower body.
“At this point, they are working on building the upper body so he is able to get off a bed and into a wheelchair by himself,” O’Donnell said. “This is gonna be a long time.”
Asked about her husband’s spirits, she said, “He’s OK. He’s doing all right.”
O’Donnell said she will not allow people to tell Andrew that a car hit his father. She does not want her son associating his father’s job with violence.
James O’Donnell always wanted to be a police officer and was at the top of his class at the police academy three years ago, she said. He has a bachelor’s degree from Penn State University and is working on a master’s degree in cyber security from the University of New Haven.
Kristen O’Donnell described her husband, 6 feet tall and 135 pounds, as “very shy and respectful. He respects everyone.... There cannot be a better cop. This is a good cop and you just ran him over.”
“He’s just fantastic... This is just a nightmare.”
O’Donnell said she did not want to talk about what role the police accountability law played in her husband’s injury or any of the legal aspects of the case, not now anyway.
Farmington police union President Sgt. Steve Egan, however, has blasted the state legislature and Rep. Mike Demicco, D- Farmington, in particular for allowing the law to pass without thinking about the consequences.
The law, in part, was a response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 5 last year, but Egan wrote in a long letter addressed to Demicco and posted on Facebook that Connecticut police officers receive superior training and “Connecticut Law Enforcement was not and continues not to be the problem.
“The problem is ill-informed legislators such as yourself that lacked courage and ceded to pure emotion and a political farce which decided to transplant a tragedy that occurred in a separate state and turn law enforcement in Connecticut upside down,” he wrote.
Egan contended that Demicco disregarded communications from town officials, the police chief and local officers to at least slow down the process.
Police around the state have complained that the accountability law hobbles police officers. The most controversial provision includes changes to what’s known as “qualified immunity,” making it easier for those who believe they have been wronged by police to file lawsuits against officers, departments and towns.
Police and the bill’s opponents in the legislature argued the change could lead to costly judgments against individual officers that they would have to cover out of their own pockets. Supporters noted the bill reads that officers would only be held liable for “malicious, wanton or willful” acts.
The law also expands reasons to revoke or suspend a police officer’s certification to include discriminatory conduct, racial profiling in violation of state law and excessive use of force. Also, police are required to intervene if they see a fellow officer using excessive force. Officers who fail to intervene can be prosecuted and punished for the same acts as the officer using excessive force.
The accountability act, Egan wrote, has neutralized law enforcement and empowered career criminals and juveniles who are “wreaking havoc in the streets.”
“Officer James O’Donnell had the courage to go out each night, leaving his family behind, because he believed in the rule of law, his mission, and a civilized society,” Egan wrote. “By the grace of God, he is still alive and will eventually get back to his family.
“However, milliseconds prevented his death. AND milliseconds prevented the likelihood that some ‘woke’ person would have called for his indictment had he shot the career criminal that was just out stealing.”
Demicco said he recently responded to Egan.
“I expressed my shock and sadness over the injuries to Officer O’Donnell and my sincere wishes for his complete recovery,” he said. “I indicated to him that there may be some misunderstanding regarding the police accountability legislation from 2020 and that I welcome the opportunity to discuss this with him, Ms. O’Donnell and any other interested parties. I asked him to contact me to arrange that discussion.”
“Along with my legislative colleagues, I am always willing to consider changes to existing laws, in order to make those laws better for everyone,” Demicco said. “In fact, at the behest of police and others, the 2021 legislature made modifications to the 2020 police accountability bill. I supported those changes, which the governor signed into law.”
Demicco wrote on his website last year that the final version of the bill, “which I was able to support, took into account the valid concerns of municipal officials, the law enforcement community, and the community at large.”
“I supported this legislation,” he wrote, “because I believe that it represents a thoughtful and important step forward in ensuring protection of the constitutional rights of all of our state’s residents, while bolstering support for the honorable and brave men and women of law enforcement.”
Farmington police and firefighters are to hold a fundraising flag football game on Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Farmington High School. They ask for a $10 donation to benefit the O’Donnell family.
Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at [email protected]
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