NEW HAVEN, CT – Greek-American Connecticut State Police Col. Stavros Mellekas issued a statement describing a trooper’s behavior as “disturbing… but does not reflect the great work of the men and women of the state police or the agency’s values,” the Hartford Courant reported on May 19.
Mellekas’ statement was in response to a video posted on YouTube of a traffic stop on May 18 which led to a state trooper being placed on administrative duty pending the internal investigation, the Courant reported.
While Mellekas did not name the trooper, the Courant reported that the trooper’s name tag was visible in the video of the I-95 stop, and identified him as Trooper Matthew Spina.
“Posting on Youtube as ‘C.O.P. Civilian on Patrol,’ the driver was identified by state police as Kevin A. Jette, who recorded the entire stop at the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in New Haven,” the Courant reported, adding that “the video begins with Spina at the passenger side window and Jette asking him, ‘Can I just ask you why you’re riding their butt like that and speeding, man?’”
The video is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nM8i31pBKWI.