A veteran city police officer claimed he was suffering from a heart attack after a witness saw him switching to the passenger seat to avoid being charged with a DUI in January. East Hartford Police Lt. Joseph Ficacelli, 46, is waiting for state Superior Court Judge Kathleen McNamara — who is a former East Hartford cop — to rule on whether he can be granted accelerated rehabilitation after switching seats in the car with a retired officer and then claiming he was having a heart attack to avoid the drunken driving arrest, documents show. "I'm pretty speechless over this behavior," McNamara said during Ficacelli's April 5 appearance at state Superior Court in Rockville after learning he was a police officer, according to a transcript of the proceeding. "I would never expect this from a police officer, even a lieutenant." McNamara said she would not make a decision on Ficacelli's case until his department completed an internal affairs investigation. Ficacelli remains on administrative duty with the outcome of the internal affairs investigation to be completed "soon," police officials said. "The East Hartford Police Department expects our officers to exercise sound judgement and conduct themselves appropriately both on-duty and off-duty," Chief Mack Hawkins said in a statement. "This officer was placed on administrative duty immediately following the incident and his status is pending the internal investigation." "The actions of this officer, even though off-duty, does not reflect the hard work and values of the officers of the East Hartford Police Department, who strive tirelessly to make a positive contribution to our community every day," Hawkins added. Ficacelli's attorney Walter Hussey did not return a request for comment. State police body-camera footage shows Ficacelli and retired East Hartford Police Officer Robert Pronovost, 55, asking to be taken to the hospital rather than face field sobriety tests in the early-morning hours of Jan. 28 in Somers. Neither man told state troopers responding to a paramedic's report of a possible problem with their vehicle of their connections to law enforcement and both claimed injury or illness as the reasons they needed to go to a hospital, refusing to take a sobriety test, the videos show. A police report indicates that a paramedic spotted Ficacelli's vehicle driving erratically in Somers and asked the occupants whether they needed help when they stopped on the side of the road. The report said the paramedic saw Ficacelli get out of the driver's seat and into the passenger seat. When state troopers arrived, Pronovost was in the driver's seat, but it became obvious he didn't know how to operate the vehicle when he turned off the radio instead of the engine, the report said. When Pronovost was asked to get out of the car for a sobriety test, body-camera video shows him immediately falling to the ground and saying he hurt his back at work so he couldn't stand up to take the test. Minutes earlier, the paramedic had seen Pronovost crawl from the passenger seat to the driver's seat while Ficacelli got out of the car to get into the passenger seat, the report said. As state troopers were starting to question who was driving because Ficacelli's cellphone was found in the road, the lieutenant said he needed to go to the hospital because he was having a heart attack, according to the video. But when Ficacelli arrived at the hospital, he refused treatment and didn't allow staff to take his blood, which could have been analyzed for his blood-alcohol content, and continued to refuse to take a sobriety test, the police report said. Troopers learned that Ficacelli was a police officer when they pulled a lockbox out from under the driver's seat that contained his East Hartford lieutenant's badge, according to the video. Later at the hospital, Ficacelli told the troopers, "I'm going to embarrass the two of you at court." "I'm not signing anything, I didn't do anything wrong," Ficacelli said, according to the video. The video also shows Ficacelli saying he didn't understand why he was charged since "I wasn't even driving." While repeatedly admonishing Ficacelli for his behavior, McNamara told the lieutenant during his April 5 proceeding that likely everyone sitting in the courtroom that day also was appalled by his conduct, the transcript of the appearance stated. Ficacelli and Provonost were each charged with operating under the influence. Provonost was granted a diversionary program and his case has been erased, court records show. State's Attorney Matthew Gendensky for the Judicial District of Tolland told McNamara during the April 5 court hearing that he wouldn't object to Ficacelli entering the same type of program. But McNamara declined to proceed, instead telling Ficacelli she wanted answers before she would approve an application for him to receive accelerated rehabilitation. #BlueLineLens #DUI #Arrest

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