|
NEW YORK, June 27 (UPI) -- A New York City police officer was sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in prison Tuesday for the sexual assault of a Haitian immigrant, considered one the worst cases of police brutality in the nation. Charles Schwarz, 34, had maintained he was "totally" innocent and not present for the brutal attack and said before his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y. that prosecutors "twisted and distorted (the) truth" at his trial.
"This case was about many things, but it was never about justice. My life has been destroyed," said Schwarz. "Prosecutors silenced witnesses just as effectively as any organized crime family."
Louima testified he was beaten bloody and taken to a 70th Precinct in Brooklyn in 1997 after he chastised police for beating a fellow Haitian outside a Flatbush nightclub. At the station, he said he was dragged to the men's room, where Officer Justin Volpe sexually tortured him with a broken-broom handle stick in his rectum, then shoved the stick in his mouth. He said Volpe threatened to kill him if he ever talked about the attack. Louima was hospitalized for two months following the assault for a ruptured colon and bladder.
Volpe pleaded guilty to attacking Louima and is serving a 30-year prison sentence.
"But for Volpe's extraordinary brutality, it is unlikely Schwarz would now face a sentence for a sexual assault carried out with such force," said U.S. District Court Judge Eugene Nickerson.
The judge said that since Volpe used the broom handle to assault Louima and Schwarz held him down, he sentenced Schwarz to half of Volpe's 30-year term. Volpe testified that another officer, Thomas Wiese, was present, but that he did not join in the attack or try to stop it, but that Schwarz was not in the men's room during the attack.
On the stand, Volpe, who was subpoenaed, denied he was seeking revenge on Wiese for sparking the investigation or that he was trying to save Schwarz, who he said he knew only slightly.
Volpe said at an earlier trial that he thought Louima had punched him during a disturbance outside the nightclub, and he became angry when Louima cursed him repeatedly during the arrest.
Schwarz was ordered to pay Louima $277,495 in compensation. Two other ex-NYPD officers, Thomas Bruder and Wiese, received sentences of five years for lying to the FBI about Schwarz's role in the assault. Last week, ex-officer Francisco Rosario, 35, was convicted of two counts of conspiring with his partner, Rolando Aleman, to make false statements to the FBI. He was acquitted on a third charge of conspiracy for lying during an investigation.
Aleman pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this year. Both are awaiting sentencing.
Prosecutors called the Rosario conviction another breach in the "blue wall of silence" when police officers protect each other by not cooperating with investigators.
The attack by white officers on a black person fueled an already tense situation between New York City police and the minority community, which says police are too aggressive in their "stop and frisk" policies and unfairly target minorities.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International
Tell your friends about this page!
| 
