Civil Rights

Civil Rights and Constitutional cases are brought on behalf of individual citizens against government officials or government organizations for violation of the individual’s rights under the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution and the Connecticut Constitution.

These rights include:

• the right to be free from the use of excessive force by police or correctional officials
• the right to freedom of speech and association
• the right to be free from unconstitutional search, seizure and arrest
• the right to be free from the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment
• the right to equal protection under the law and to be free from racial, religious or sexual discrimination
• the right to privacy
• the right to hold property without excessive government intrusion.

KK&B has considerable experience in the areas of prisoner rights and police misconduct. The firm has achieved record-breaking awards on behalf of families of inmates killed in custody, including multi-million dollar settlements for the asphyxia death of a schizophrenic inmate at the Hartford Correctional Center and the restraint death of a schizophrenic patient at the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. The firm’s lawyers have litigated dozens of cases concerning the conditions of confinement, the use of excessive force and the provision of mental health care in prisons and state psychiatric facilities.

The firm has also represented many plaintiffs in cases against police officers and police departments, for the use of excessive force, illegal search and seizures, false arrest, and related abuses of power.

Antonio Ponvert and Richard Bieder currently represent the families of a number of prison inmates, as well as individuals at other state institutions, who have been the victim of excessive force or the failure of prison officials to recognize and/or properly treat psychiatric conditions.

Antonio is a member of a national team of police misconduct attorneys representing 20 children who were the victims of an unconstitutional paramilitary-style police raid at a high school in Goose Creek, South Carolina.