Former Hartford Police officer Jill Kidik testified in the case against the woman accused of stabbing her her multiple times while she was responding to a call in May 2018.
“I don’t remember being stabbed in the throat but I knew I was dying,” former Hartford Police officer Jill Kidik said in court testimony at Hartford Superior Court Friday.
A little more than three years after her attack, Kidik took to the stand testify about the call that nearly took her life.
“That’s when I remember I was being attacked again but I couldn’t see her and I was begging her to stop. I said I have a daughter because I had a stepdaughter at the time and she just didn’t stop,” Kidik said.
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Kidik was one of seven witnesses set to take the stand in the trial against the woman accused of attacking her. Chevoughn Augustin faces charges including attempted murder, first-degree assault and assault on a police officer.
“I knew she was gonna die if I didn’t do anything,” Hartford police officer Alex Ortolaza said in court.
Also on the stand was Hartford police officer Alex Ortolaza, the first officer who arrived at the Spectra apartments after Kidik was stabbed. He gave gripping testimony about the moment he knew he couldn’t wait for paramedics.
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“I placed my right hand on her throat and I said baby we got to get out of here and she nodded, she understood me she nodded,” Ortolaza said.
For the first time Friday, prosecutors showed the surveillance video of the moment Ortolaza carried Kidik to the elevator as the building manager kept one hand on Kidik’s neck with pressure and the other on the phone with 911 dispatchers.
“Now that we’re here and I’m sitting in the same room as her watching it it’s surreal,” Kidik said.
Kiddik says she hopes her case can address the need for more funding for mental health services.
“You have mobile crisis you have many hospitals and resources just nobody wants to put the money into it because nobody wants to admit that mental health is an issue with the pandemic of its own,” Kidik said.
Lawyers on both sides of the case are set to bring up mental health evaluations in court. Augustin has pleaded not guilty to the charges and her attorney is set to seek an insanity defense.
