Lawsuit Dismissal Upheld In Crash That Killed Oxford Teen: Report

OXFORD, CT — The Connecticut Supreme Court this week upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against the town of Seymour for the death of a 15-year-old Oxford resident in a 2012 police chase, according to the Connecticut Post.

Angela Borrelli had sued the town of Seymour for the death of her son, Brandon Giordano. A Superior Court judge dismissed the case in 2017 and Borrelli filed an appeal.

The Post reports the state Supreme Court, in a 6-1 decision, ruled that Seymour police officers are “shielded by governmental and qualified immunity from liability for the decision to initiate a high-speed police pursuit” that led to Giordano’s death.

Giordano, who was a popular football player at Oxford High School, was killed on March 9, 2012. He was a passenger in a car driven by then-19-year-old Eric Ramirez, who was ordered to pull over the side of the road by a Seymour police officer, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Ramirez was accused of speeding up while the officer chased him into Oxford on Route 67 and eventually broke off the pursuit, according to previous reports. Ramirez's car struck an embankment on a turn on Old State Road No. 67. The car then flew nearly 60 feet and hit a building head-on before landing upside down, trapping all three teens in the car and killing Giordano, the backseat passenger, on impact, according to a previous Patch report.

Read more about the state Supreme Court’s ruling at the Connecticut Post here.