Jeffny Pally, 19, was a sophomore from West Hartford. She studied allied health and made her presence known all over campus through involvement in groups far and wide, from her sorority to Community Outreach. (Courtesy/Facebook)
The Hartford Courant released portions of the video of a University of Connecticut student’s death Friday.
“When it became clear that this video offered new information relevant to the investigation, the Courant, after editing and cropping the video at some points to protect the victim, felt it was necessary to share it with the public to provide more details and a more-complete picture of the incident than had been previously reported,” The Hartford Courant’s Publisher and Editor in Chief Andrew Julien said.
Jeffny Pally, a UConn sophomore died last October after being run over by an emergency fire vehicle.
The video shows Pally walking to the fire station door and leaning against, and eventually lying down in front of it. It then shows the emergency vehicle pulling out of the station.
Parts of the video were pixilated to protect the privacy of Pally and her family and does not show the portion of the video where the vehicle runs over Pally.
“Throughout our investigation, the Courant was conscious of the sensitive nature of this story and took the proper precautions to respect and protect the dignity of Jeffny Pally and her family,” Julien said.
The video does show that Dana Barrow, the firefighter who was driving the vehicle, stopped for a moment when the front tires made contact with Pally’s body before proceeding.
“There was at least a moment, a moment or two, where the driver of that vehicle perceived an obstacle in his path,” the Pally family’s attorney Michael Walsh said to the Courant, “He hesitated. He went through a thought process and he decided to go over that obstacle.”
This detail was not mentioned in the 274-page police report, according to the Courant.
Barrow was responding to what turned out to be a false alarm at a dorm.
“Regardless of what call he was responding to, taking the one, two, three seconds to essentially open the door, pop out, and look… I don’t understand why that wasn’t done,” Walsh said to the Courant. “I don’t understand why the police didn’t look at that.”
The Courant obtained access to the video following a prolonged legal battle with the Pally family and the university which ended in June when a judge ruled in favor of the Courant.
Walsh said releasing the video could interfere with the lawsuit against Barrow and the university.
Courant reporter Matthew Kauffman said withholding the video would have been in violation of the Freedom of Information Act during the hearing in May.
Pally’s Blood Alcohol Content was .25 at the time of her death. Six members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity were charged with providing alcohol to a minor but were granted a special probation in June.
The fraternity was later expelled from UConn and Pally’s sorority, Delta Gamma, had its charter revoked.
Anna Zarra Aldrich is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at anna.aldrich@uconn.edu. She tweets @ZarraAnna.
