HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Hartford region’s top state prosecutor acknowledged mistakes and apologized Friday for taking years to complete reports on whether police were justified in four fatal shootings, but defended her overall job performance amid calls for her reappointment to be rejected.

Hartford State’s Attorney Gail Hardy, whose eight-year term expires Tuesday, was questioned for nearly four hours during a video conference call with the state’s Criminal Justice Commission, which is deciding whether she should keep her job. No decision was made and the commission will resume the meeting on Monday, when members of the public will get to weigh in.

Hardy, Connecticut’s first Black state’s attorney, completed a four-day, unpaid suspension this week for failing to complete the fatal use-of-force reports in a timely fashion. The discipline imposed by the commission last week was the first suspension of a Connecticut state’s attorney.

“The work that I and my staff have done to make our community safer and provide victims with the opportunity to heal and to give offenders a second chance is something that I’m proud of,” Hardy said. “That does not mean that I have been perfect. I have not been. In life, we stumble and fall, but the important thing is that we get back up. I am no exception. I stumbled and fell with respect to four deadly use of force reports.”

While the commission has received letters supporting Hardy, influential groups including the state chapters of the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, along with local pastors, asked the commission to not give Hardy another term.

The four reports in question involved the the deaths of Ernesto Morales in Hartford on July 11, 2012; Edmanuel Reyes in Manchester on May 19, 2011; Taurean Wilson in East Hartford on Jan. 1, 2009; and Joseph Bak in Hartford on March 3, 2008.

Hardy, who became Hartford state’s attorney in 2007, finally released the reports in December, two months after The Hartford Courant first reported they hadn’t been completed. All the officers were found to be justified in the killings.

Hardy said the four investigations were completed in a timely fashion, as were her decisions that all the officers were justified, but she just hadn’t completed the formal reports. She said all the officers and their departments were notified when the determinations were made, and she informed all but one of the families — Bak’s — soon after making those decisions.

Asked why the reports took so long, Hardy has said her office — which prosecutes crimes committed in Hartford and 18 surrounding towns — is one of the busiest in the state, but she said that was not an excuse. She told the commission such delays would not happen again and she would delegate more duties to her subordinates to free up time to complete such reports.

Connecticut has 13 state’s attorneys who are the top law enforcement officials in their judicial districts.

The local NAACP and ACLU chapters, and two pastors, recently wrote the commission saying Hardy should not get another term. The letter said Hardy “has engaged in willful negligence of a portion of her duties that are important to our community. State’s Hardy … has not been held to account for her poor management of the Hartford Judicial District.”

They also accused Hardy of failing on occasion to apply state laws on hate crimes when people were victims of race-based violence.

Some of the sharpest questioning of Hardy came from state Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald, chairman of the Criminal Justice Commission. He asked her why she had fallen out of favor with the NAACP and other groups.

Hardy said the opposition took her by surprise and was hurtful, because she has received awards from the NAACP and she has had good relationships with the group’s leaders and other community groups.

The state NAACP and its president, Scot Esdaile, have been frustrated with Hardy over her decisions to clear a Wethersfield police officer of wrongdoing in connection with a fatal shooting last year and to not charge a University of Hartford student with hate crimes in 2017.

The white student was accused of smearing body fluids on her Black roommate’s belongings. She was charged with misdemeanors and allowed into a program that resulted in the charges being erased from her record. Hardy said there was no evidence to support hate crimes charges.

Newsletter