a1103: Haiti Support Network Statement on Louima Case Reversal (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>


Haiti Support Network (HSN)

39 West 14 Street, room 206
New York, NY 10011
Tel: (212) 633-6646
Fax: (212) 633-2889

For Immediate Release:
March 5, 2002

Contact:
Ray Laforest, 212-219-0022, x. 5113


The Subversion of Justice Cannot Be Tolerated

By overturning the convictions of three police officers for stonewalling
justice in the torture of Abner Louima, the U.S. criminal justice system has
once again proven its complicity with police brutality, obstruction, and
criminality, which is obvious and well documented in this case.

It was apparent to the Haitian community and the world--as well as a jury of
their peers--that Charles Schwarz, Thomas Bruder, and Thomas Wiese, along
with many of their colleagues, worked diligently to block the truth from
coming out about that fateful night of Aug. 9, 1997 when they mercilessly
beat up Abner Louima on the way to Brooklyn's 70th Precinct house and once
there, either Schwarz or Wiese assisted Justin Volpe in torturing the
victim.

Did any one of them come forward to volunteer what happened that night? Did
any one of them ever denounce the beatings and torture, or attempt to stop
it? No. Instead, once discovered, they floated flabbergasting lies that
Louima had ripped his colon during rough sex at the Rendezvous Night Club
before his arrest, even though he was supposedly strong enough to knock down
Volpe with a single punch.

The three-member appellate court, which overturned the convictions, had to
admit that the officers "agreed generally to impede investigators by putting
forth and corroborating a false version of what occurred." Then the judges
used the oldest trick in the book: a technicality. They ruled that there was
"no evidence" that the three cops "specifically" intended to obstruct the
federal grand jury looking into the case.

The appeals court also overturned Charles Schwarz's conviction for assisting
Volpe in the torture, claiming that his lawyer had a conflict of interest
and didn't do a good job and that the jury was prejudiced. During the trial,
Schwarz waived his option to change his lawyer, who also represents the
police union, when the possible conflict of interest was raised. What's the
point of a waiver if an appellate court can recue everything?

Volpe said that Wiese was the cop who helped him. All the cops have lied so
much, it hard to know what to believe. But their finger-pointing looks like
a tactic to confuse the public and thwart justice. There is good reason for
people to worry if Volpe's accomplice will ever be brought to justice,
whoever he is.

Ironically, a lacking lawyer and a predisposed jury are precisely among the
reasons that U.S. political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has repeatedly raised
in an attempt to gain a new trial. His appeals, however, have all been
snubbed, and he remains in jail 21 years later.

The Haiti Support Network (HSN) condemns with all its force this transparent
maneuver to roll back one of the exceptional cases where policemen have been
brought to justice for brutality against the people they are supposed to
serve. The HSN will work with the Haitian community and others in the weeks
and months ahead to denounce and foil this attempt to plug the hole that was
finally punctured in the "blue wall of silence" and police brutality.