Milford cop suspended for going 100mph

Milford, Conn. (AP) - Milford Police Chief Keith Mello says a city officer was suspended without pay for five days and banned from driving police vehicles for nine months for driving too fast to emergency calls.

Police cruiser video recordings from 2008 obtained by the New Haven Register show Officer James Kiely driving over 100 mph on three separate calls, reaching up to 113 mph two times.

Police Chief Keith Mello issued the following statement:

During an administrative review conducted in July 2009 through December 2009, the Department discovered in-car video tapes depicting the emergency response by Officer James Kiely on separate dates in 2008. Although this Officer was responding to dispatched emergencies, the speeds at which this Officer traveled were excessive. As a result, this Officer was taken off the road and prohibited from operating a police vehicle for a period of nine months. In addition, other administrative sanctions were taken against this Officer, including a five (5) day suspension without pay and retraining.

The newspaper requested the recordings after two teenagers from Orange were killed in a crash with a police cruiser going 94 mph without its emergency lights on last year. Officer Jason Anderson was fired and charged with manslaughter.

A police official said Wednesday that Kiely was unavailable for comment.

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Information from: New Haven Register