A former cop who claimed that someone left a racist memo on department letterhead in his mailbox at a Connecticut police department earlier this year has admitted to penning the letter himself, authorities say.
Clive Higgins was charged with filing a false report after he claimed he found a letter with the heading "WHITE POWER" across the top of the page on Feb. 9. The letter went on to say "Officer Clive Higgins doesn't belong here in this Police Department" and "These Black Officers belong in the toilet."
A month before the letter was written, Higgins was acquitted in connection with a 2011 police brutality case in which officers were caught on camera beating a suspect at Beardsley Park and shooting him with a stun gun. Two other officers were convicted, but a federal jury found Higgins not guilty.
"He's not getting his gun or his badge back. He didn't even support his fellow Officers in Court," the letter stated. "Where were you Higgins ?? You better watch your back.. We know where you live."
The report of the racist letter prompted the Bridgeport Guardians, a minority officers' organization, to hold a news conference, calling the letter "racial, insensitive and threatening." They said it was the most recent of at least three hateful notes to circulate within the department within a year.
State police were called in to investigate and reviewed surveillance from the station, which they said showed Higgins typing and printing documents just before going into the room where he said he found the letter, according to the report.
While Higgins said he feared for his life, surveillance footage allegedly showed him smiling and talking when he returned from the room, according to state police.
After investigators presented him with the photographs, Higgins allegedly began rubbing and shaking his head and admitted to typing the letter in the booking room himself and printing it out before calling the Bridgeport Guardians, according to paperwork filed in Superior Court.
Higgins, who resigned from the department on July 6, was released after an arraignment and is due in court on Dec. 16. Attorney information for the man wasn't immediately available.
