A federal court has dismissed a civil rights suit by state Rep. Maryam Khan in which she claimed Hartford police officers discriminated against her by failing to respond appropriately when she was assaulted while leaving a prayer service in Hartford with family members two years ago.
In the unprovoked attack, Khan, D-Windsor, was threatened with a sexual assault, struck in the face and thrown to the ground by a tattooed assailant while her children watched as they left a Muslim service at the XL Center shortly before noon on a Wednesday.
Khan claimed in public statements and later in the suit against Hartford and several officers that the police response to her assault was insufficient in that officers “discounted” her injuries and reports of sexual assault. She claimed in the suit that is the “custom” of the Hartford police “to discriminate against individuals of the Muslim religion” such as Khan, and that her treatment was “a part of the systematic pattern of discrimination by HPD against women of color.”
U.S. District Judge Sarah F. Russell concluded in a written decision that the suit failed to present plausible allegations supporting claims of a practice or custom of discrimination against or mistreatment of Muslim women. The decision, dated Tuesday, said the suit lacked factual allegations with “sufficient detail to state a plausible claim” for liability.
Russell gave Khan a month to refile an amended suit. If nothing is filed, the case will be closed, Russell said.
Khan and her lawyers could not be reached.She was the first Muslim to serve in the state House of Representatives.
About 1,500 people attended the service in Hartford on June 28, 2023. Security was provided by four uniformed Hartford officers – one inside and three outside – in addition to 13 security guards.
As Khan left with her sister and her three minor children, she was harassed by a man who threatened to sexually assault her in front of her family. The attacker slapped Khan in the face, dragged her in a chokehold and slammed her to the ground when bystanders intervened and stopped the assault.
Khan suffered several injuries, including a concussion and cuts and bruises. According to her suit, she also suffered severe emotional distress from the “physical assault and attempted sexual assault and continues to seek treatment” for this distress.
The suit claims no officers were patrolling the area when Khan left the service and it was “several minutes” before police arrived. In spite of her injuries, the suit claims the officers asked Khan to walk some distance to identify the attacker, rather than allowing her to tend to her injuries and identify the assailant in a fashion that shielded her identity.
Khan claimed in the suit that she provided police with details of the sexual assault and physical attack, but they “failed to detail any recount of her sexual assault in their police report.”
Andrey Desmond, then 30, of New Britain, convicted in connection with the attack on Rep. Maryam Khan.
Finally, the suit claimed that the police provided the report to news reporters before giving her a copy, that the police gave “biased and skewed” information to the media, that the report completely ignored Khan’s report of a sexual assault and that it was was critical of a bystander who came to Khan’s assistance and later kicked her attacker in the head as he lay subdued on the ground.
Russell concluded that the allegations did not not reach the threshold needed to constitute a violation of her rights.
An Internal affairs investigation previously absolved the Hartford police of misconduct in the Khan case, with the exception of an officer who was ordered to undergo a remedial course in report writing.
Andrey Desmond, then 31, was sentenced in Hartford Superior Court last year in connection with the June 2023 assault on Khan. Desmond pleaded guilty in April 2024 to attempted third-degree sexual assault, attempted first-degree strangulation and risk of injury to a minor — all felonies.
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