The majority of a state arbitration panel has ruled that the City of New Haven was unjust in its firing of a police sergeant in August 2022, following an internal affairs investigation that found she violated multiple department policies during a traffic stop and was dishonest during the subsequent investigation.
City officials failed to meet the burden of proof in most of the allegations brought in a charge document filed by New Haven Chief Karl Jacobson against Shayna Kendall when he recommended to the Board of Police Commissioners that Kendall be terminated, according to an arbitration award dated Nov. 22.
A decision by the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration ruled that New Haven city officials were unjust in their firing of Kendall and reduced her termination to a one-day suspension. Kendall will be reinstated and made whole for any lost wages, benefits and seniority, the decision said.
“Among the most important qualities in a police officer are honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness — both with the community and with their fellow officers — and trust is the foundation of our community policing model in New Haven,” Mayor Justin Elicker said in a statement Thursday. “Overwhelmingly, our police officers are doing outstanding work under very challenging circumstances and demonstrate those qualities every day — day in and day out.
“In this instance, Chief Jacobson and the Board of Police Commissioners unanimously concluded that Sgt. Kendall’s actions warranted termination from the New Haven Police Department,” Elicker continued. “We ask residents to be honest with our officers, and our officers must be held to the same standard.”
New Haven police sergeant terminated for violating department policies
Elicker also said city officials were “disappointed by the board’s ruling” and that the city’s corporation counsel is “reviewing the decision to determine next steps.”
Kendall could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Kendall became the subject of an internal affairs investigation when Virginia Hawthorne filed a civilian complaint against her a day after a traffic stop on July 7, 2021. Hawthorne was stopped shortly before 7:10 a.m. at the intersection of Crescent Street and Ella Grasso Boulevard behind Kendall, who was in an unmarked “take home” SUV, when the light turned green and Kendall did not move, according to the internal affairs report. Hawthorne honked her horn before Kendall continued straight on Crescent Street, while Hawthorne turned right onto Ella Grasso.
Kendall, who was running late and had not yet started her shift, activated her emergency lights and pulled Hawthorne over, the internal affairs report said.
According to the complaint filed by Hawthorne, who was also on her way to work, Kendall told her “You didn’t realize it was a police officer in front of you.” Kendall, who was dressed in street clothes, also allegedly told Hawthorne that she was now “detained from getting to work on time,” Hawthorne’s complaint states. Hawthorne told police she felt Kendall was abusing her power as a police officer, adding that she never asked her for any identification or vehicle information or told her which department she was from.
During the internal affairs investigation, Kendall said she thought Hawthorne may have been having some kind of medical issue or emergency.
At the time of the traffic stop, Kendall was a sergeant assigned as the deputy commander of training for the New Haven Police Academy. She was hired by New Haven police in 2007 and was terminated the same year from the Police Officer Standard Training Council Academy for “alleged dishonesty and other offenses related to demeanor,” according to the arbitration award report.
Kendall filed a complaint against the New Haven Police Department and POSTC with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities alleging the 2007 termination was based on her race and sex. Following a settlement between the parties, Kendall was rehired by New Haven police in September 2009. She worked as a patrol officer for four years before being promoted to detective, where she worked in the special victims and major crimes units for three years until she was promoted to sergeant.
In 2019, Kendall transferred to the New Haven Police Academy and was considered for a promotion to assistant chief in 2021, the arbitration award said.
Following the internal affairs investigation into the traffic stop, Jacobson recommended Kendall be terminated — a decision OK’d by New Haven’s Civilian Review Board — and presented six allegations in his charge document against her before she was fired in August 2022, according to the arbitration report. An arbitration panel found that city officials only met the burden of proof in one of the allegations, as Kendall failed to document the traffic stop and notify dispatchers, the report said.
The other allegations, which mostly dealt with accusations that Kendall was dishonest during the internal affairs investigation, could not be proven, the arbitration panel decided. The report filed in the arbitration award noted that most of the interviews in the internal investigation were conducted four to five months after the traffic stop and that mistakes or inconsistencies could not be attributed to dishonesty.
In his internal affairs investigation, New Haven Sgt. Christopher Fennessy wrote that Kendall gave “untruthful and inaccurate responses” when she was interviewed about the traffic stop. Fennessy also wrote that Kendall has a “documented history of being deceitful,” though the arbitration board noted in its report that no such documented instances could be found with the exception of the incident at the police academy in 2007.
One of the three panel members listed in the arbitration award wrote a dissenting opinion in connection with the decision, “taking exception to the majority decision of the panel” and said he did not believe the other panel members took into account that Kendall’s termination “was not in itself just on the incident, but a culmination of Sgt. Kendall’s behavior over her tenure as a police officer.”
