12461: AP: Disgraced Cop Testifies (Louima assault) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Wed, 3 Jul 2002
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Ex-NYPD Cop Testifies in Louima Case
The Associated Press



NEW YORK (AP) — The disgraced ex-patrolman who tortured
Abner Louima in a police station bathroom testified Monday
that a second officer accused of joining in the 1997
assault was never there.

Justin Volpe told a jury that Thomas Wiese — not defendant
Charles Schwarz — was with him when he took Louima into the
70th Precinct bathroom.

``Wiese was right there,'' Volpe said after being called as
the first defense witness at Schwarz's retrial in federal
court.

Schwarz was convicted in 1999 on civil rights charges, but
the conviction was tossed out earlier this year by a
federal appeals court that found his lawyer did not defend
him adequately and that the jury was tainted by news
reports.

Volpe, who pleaded guilty, is serving a 30-year term.

Volpe's testimony Monday contradicted that of Louima, who
identified the second officer as the driver of the patrol
car that took him to the police station following a street
disturbance. Records show the driver was Schwarz.

The Haitian immigrant testified that the driver put his
foot on his mouth to quiet him while Volpe sodomized him
with a broken broomstick, tearing his rectum and bladder.

On Monday, Volpe said that — after getting punched to the
ground during a fight with Louima on the street — he alone
assaulted him in a fit of rage. Louima has denied striking
Volpe; charges against him were dropped.

``I was mad,'' Volpe said, taking deep breaths. ``I
couldn't think straight. I was very charged up.''

After torturing the handcuffed prisoner, ``I leaned down
and put the stick in his face and said, 'Look what you made
me do,''' Volpe said.

Volpe, 30, testified that Wiese stood by the door the
entire time — a claim prosecutor Alan Vinegrad challenged
on cross-examination. The government has argued it would
have been physically impossible for a single assailant to
both restrain and sodomize Louima.

``Isn't it a fact, sir, that while you were sodomizing Mr.
Louima ... Charles Schwarz was holding him?'' Vinegrad
asked.

``No, it is not a fact,'' Volpe said.

Volpe also denied Vinegrad's charge that his testimony was
concocted ``to protect a former colleague.''

The appeals court threw out the obstruction-of-justice
convictions of Wiese and another officer, who were accused
of covering up the crime.


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