Officer Indicted for Cracking Handcuffed Prisoner's Skull

He then lied about it

A Meriden police officer was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on a charge of police brutality following an investigation into a 2010 incident in which he shoved a handcuffed prisoner into a jail cell, cracking the man's skull.

The criminal investigation of Evan Cossette, the son of Police Chief Jeffry Cossette, started after the videotape of the jail cell incident surfaced and two officers, Brian Sullivan and Donald Huston, complained to city officials that Evan Cossette had received favorable treatment because he is the chief's son.

Cossette was also charged with obstruction of justice for filing a false report of the incident. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday in New Haven before U.S. Magistrate Joan G. Margolis.