Ventura v. Town of East Haven (Filed New Haven, 2008)

East Haven, like every other town, requires its officers to impound unregistered vehicles. In this case, the police were called to a domestic incident outside a fast food restaurant. When they arrived they observed that a couple was fighting inside an unregistered van that also had plates not matching the vehicle. They also observed that the couple appeared to have been drinking. Rather than arresting the driver or impounding the vehicle, the police inexplicably decided to do nothing other than tell the driver he should not operate the van. After the police left, the driver drove his van down Townsend Avenue in New Haven and struck a pedestrian getting into his vehicle. The plaintiff was a teenager who was hit at 30-40 mph and suffered catastrophic injuries.