12453: NYTimes: Volpe has Hard Day of Cross-X After Testimony (Louima) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>


Volpe Repeats That Schwarz Wasn't There
By WILLIAM GLABERSON


Justin A. Volpe, the former police officer who attacked
Abner Louima five years ago, testified yesterday that he
alone sodomized Mr. Louima with a broken broomstick and
that Charles Schwarz was not in the precinct station
bathroom where the attack took place.

Mr. Volpe, the first witness for Mr. Schwarz's defense
after the prosecution rested its case yesterday, delivered
expected testimony that is central to the defense claim
that Mr. Schwarz is wrongly charged with helping Mr. Volpe
in the assault. "Schwarz was never in the bathroom at any
point," Mr. Volpe said.

The chief prosecutor, Alan Vinegrad, produced a surprise,
though, by playing a tape recently recorded in prison in
which Mr. Volpe declared that he planned to testify only in
the hope of getting something in return, like help from Mr.
Schwarz's lawyers in reducing his sentence.

"If I'm not getting my time cut, I want to go back
tonight," Mr. Volpe said in a telephone conversation with
his father last month that was recorded by prison officials
after he was brought to New York from a prison in Minnesota
to testify. Mr. Volpe, who pleaded guilty in 1999, is
serving 30 years.

Mr. Vinegrad's four-hour cross-examination of Mr. Volpe
appeared to present a major blow to the defense plans of
depending heavily on Mr. Volpe's account that Mr. Schwarz
was not present during the assault.

The prosecutor used the tape to question Mr. Volpe's
motives, while giving the jury an unvarnished picture of
him that was at variance with the soft-spoken man who
paraphrased offensive words he had used in the past.

In the expletive-laced conversation on the tape, Mr. Volpe
said he had a "surprise" in mind for Mr. Schwarz's defense
lawyers and added that "if they think I'm falling on the
sword again for nothing," they are crazy. It was not clear
what Mr. Volpe meant, but Mr. Vinegrad suggested that Mr.
Volpe had considered implicating Mr. Schwarz rather than
helping him.

On the tape, Mr. Volpe referred derisively to Mr. Schwarz,
saying he had tried to ruin his life.

"What am I doing here" while Mr. Schwarz is at home, he
wondered aloud. Mr. Schwarz's two prior convictions in the
case were overturned in February. He is charged now with
perjury and civil rights violations.

With biting questions, Mr. Vinegrad suggested that Mr.
Volpe was lying to help another former officer and to get a
more lenient sentence. A judge can reduce a prisoner's
sentence if the prisoner provides testimony that helps free
an innocent man.

Mr. Vinegrad noted that Mr. Volpe described himself on the
tape as a "knight in shining armor" for Mr. Schwarz. Mr.
Volpe also described himself on the tape as having
"committed suicide" by his testimony at a trial two years
ago in which he said, as he did yesterday, that the other
officer in the bathroom was not Mr. Schwarz but Mr.
Schwarz's partner, Thomas Wiese. He repeated his account
yesterday, saying Mr. Wiese was in the bathroom during the
assault but took no action to help him or to stop the
attack.

Judging from the drawn figure Mr. Volpe cut in the witness
box, prison life has been hard. He has lost the bursting
muscles that made him appear threatening at the time of the
attack in the summer of 1997.

Mr. Schwarz's chief defense lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti,
had indicated that the two main parts of his case would be
the testimony of Mr. Volpe and Mr. Wiese. But Mr. Fischetti
said he had also learned that Mr. Wiese would not take the
stand.

Yesterday, Mr. Wiese's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said in an
interview that Mr. Wiese had wanted to testify but decided
that he had to claim his Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination. Mr. Tacopina said he advised Mr. Wiese
that whether Mr. Schwarz won or lost, the prosecutors were
likely to indict Mr. Wiese on a perjury charge.

Twice before the tape was played yesterday, Judge Reena
Raggi sent the jury out of the court so she could press Mr.
Volpe when she thought he was being evasive by suggesting
he did not understand questions. Mr. Volpe appeared
chastened each time, but it was the tape recording that
seemed to puncture his composure.

In answer to questions from a defense lawyer, Diarmuid
White, he was near tears as he explained that he knew he
could probably win leniency if he implicated Mr. Schwarz
but refused to do it because "it's not right."

On the tape he said it was time for him to stop being "Mr.
Honorable." Under questioning from Mr. White, he said he
meant that he was paying a high cost for insisting on
telling the truth.

Before Mr. Vinegrad presented the tape, Mr. Volpe's
testimony went largely as expected. He provided a detailed
account of his assault on Mr. Louima and said Mr. Schwarz
was far from the bathroom. Although Mr. Wiese had been
present, Mr. Volpe said, he had committed the assault
himself without any help from another officer.

After he had to explain his remarks on the tape, Mr. Volpe
seemed deflated. After Judge Raggi excused him, he moved
toward a door on the side of the courtroom.

His feet dragged as he walked toward the door and back to
prison. The door opened and then closed behind him,
removing him again from the city that was stunned five
years ago by his actions in a station house bathroom.


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