a966: Louima: Convictions Overturned! (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>



> 3 Louima Cop Convictions Overturned
> Thu Feb 28,11:09 AM ET
> NEW YORK (AP) - A federal appeals court overturned the convictions of
> three
> police officers in the Abner Louima torture case Thursday, finding
> insufficient evidence they obstructed justice.
>
> The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of
> Charles
> Schwarz, Thomas Wiese and Thomas Bruder. The ruling does not affect the
> conviction of the chief attacker, Justin Volpe.
> Prosecutors said Louima was tortured in a police station bathroom in 1997
> following his arrest in a melee outside a Brooklyn nightclub. They said a
> handcuffed Louima was pinned down and Volpe sodomized him with a broken
> broomstick.
> Volpe pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years.
> The appeals court said the conviction of Schwarz, who allegedly held down
> Louima as he was being attacked, for civil rights violations must be
> thrown
> out. It said he must get a new trial because he was denied effective
> assistance of counsel and because the jury was improperly exposed to
> prejudicial information during deliberations.
> The court also held that convictions against Schwarz, Wiese and Bruder at
> a
> second trial for conspiracy to obstruct justice must be thrown out for
> insufficient evidence. They had been accused of conspiring to hide
> Schwarz's
> alleged role.
> Sanford Rubenstein, a lawyer for Louima, said that if there is a new trial
> for Schwarz, "we look to the federal government to retry the case and we
> will be supportive of their efforts as we have in the past."
> Louima suffered severe internal injuries in the attack, including a
> ruptured
> bladder and colon, and spent two months in the hospital.
> Louima filed a civil suit against the city and the police union, which was
> settled in July after months of hard-fought negotiations. The city and
> union
> agreed to pay Louima and his lawyers $8.7 million to settle the suit. The
> settlement was the largest ever in a police brutality case in New York.
> In their appeal, lawyers for Schwarz had argued that his attorney in both
> trials had a conflict of interest as he also represented the police union,
> thereby hindering him from deflecting blame to another officer.
> The Louima case and other high-profile incidents - including the 1999
> death
> of an unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, in a hail of 41
> bullet
> fired by four white officers - ignited protests accusing police of
> singling
> out minorities for abuse, often through racial-profiling.
> Telephone calls to lawyers for Schwarz and Bruder were not immediately
> returned.
> Joseph Tacopina, attorney for Wiese, said he had not seen the opinion, but
> ""Justice has been served. It was clearly the right decision. Hopefully
> now
> Thomas Wiese, Thomas Bruder and Charles Schwarz can resume their normal
> lives with this and even possibly return to the force."
> Zachary Carter, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted the Louima case,
> also said he had not read the decision and declined to comment.
>