01-22-2010, 12:15 AM
A decade ago, during jury selection in the case of the police officers accused of torturing Abner Louima, thousands of people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest abuses by the police.
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Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times (left); The Associated Press
Richard Kern, right, is accused of brutalizing Michael Mineo, left. Two other officers are also charged.
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Times Topics: Michael Mineo | Police Brutality and Misconduct
In 2007, outside a courthouse in Queens, New Black Panthers and police union members made up the cast of vocal partisans watching the trial of the officers who fatally shot Sean Bell.
But on Wednesday, as the case involving accusations of cruel force by the police against a man named Michael Mineo got under way, the only commotion outside the courthouse came from traffic or officers directing visitors.
Inside State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Justice Alan D. Marrus pondered whether he could move the trial to a smaller courtroom for opening statements on Thursday.
“I want to see how many people show up tomorrow,” he decided.
The quiet start to the trial masked explosive charges. Prosecutors say that a group of officers tackled Mr. Mineo, then 24, on a platform at the Prospect Park subway station 15 months ago.
The authorities contend that one of the officers, Richard Kern, repeatedly shoved a retractable baton between Mr. Mineo’s buttocks, then told Mr. Mineo that if he revealed the attack to anyone or went to the hospital, he would be charged with a felony. Two other officers, Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales, helped to cover up the attack, prosecutors charge.
Officer Kern, who was 25 at the time, was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Officers Cruz and Morales, both 26 at the time, were charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct. The three officers were placed on modified assignments and their guns were taken away.
Lawyers for the three officers said that their clients were not guilty. In court, they plan to argue that the attack never happened and that Mr. Mineo’s injuries could have stemmed from a previous infection.
But prosecutors plan to present DNA evidence from Officer Kern’s baton that they say came from Mr. Mineo, who was hospitalized with a torn rectum that became abscessed and had to be surgically drained.
While the criminal case will focus narrowly on the events of that day in 2008, Mr. Mineo has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city. His lawyer contended that the Police Department had been “negligent in training, hiring and supervising” the officers involved. The suit seeks $220 million in damages.
Despite the brutality of the accusations — and their echo of previous events, like the 1997 sodomy of Mr. Louima in a Brooklyn station house — and despite early attention, Mr. Mineo’s case has not sparked the same kind of public protest, or changes of protocol within the department.
Among the reasons, experts said, is the fact that race is not a factor — Officer Kern is white, Officers Cruz and Morales are Hispanic, and Mr. Mineo is white and Hispanic. In addition, other officers ultimately came forward to corroborate Mr. Mineo’s account, blunting charges of a “blue wall of silence.”
“There’s been a lot of pretrial publicity,” said John D. Patten, a lawyer for Officer Kern. “A lot of it is falling off.”
Against that backdrop, prosecutors will attempt the most difficult of tasks: convicting police officers. And in a trial expected to stretch less than a month, both sides will try to draw sharp lines through the cloudy events of Oct. 15, 2008.
Those events played out in full public view. That day, Mr. Mineo, who was working as a body piercer at the time, was smoking a marijuana cigarette with a friend near the Prospect Park station, the authorities said. Upon seeing Officers Kern and Morales in an unmarked car, Mr. Mineo threw away the cigarette and fled into the station, the authorities said.
Several officers tackled Mr. Mineo and handcuffed him. Then, according to prosecutors, at least one witness saw Officer Kern shove the baton between Mr. Mineo’s buttocks over and over, ripping his underwear and the skin beneath, causing him to bleed.
Mr. Mineo screamed about his injuries as he was led away, witnesses told the authorities; when Officer Kern asked him if he was injured, prosecutors say, Mr. Mineo reached into his pants and showed his bloodied hands.
It took more than a week before Mr. Mineo’s accusations became public. They emerged with a torrent of other information, including early denials by the Police Department that Mr. Mineo had been attacked, corroboration of Mr. Mineo’s story by a transit officer and then other details about the lives of two men at the center of the case.
Officer Kern, a skinny native of Woodside, Queens, looks more like a teenager. He had been accused of excessive force twice before, but his lawyer said he was cleared in both cases. One of the cases prompted lawsuits that the city settled for $50,000.
Mr. Mineo, gangly and tall, had a history of mostly minor brushes with the law. After what friends called an itinerant childhood and adolescence — both of his parents are dead — Mr. Mineo worked at a tattoo parlor in Downtown Brooklyn.
Defense lawyers have promised a rigorous questioning of Mr. Mineo’s credibility. “Not just his background, his drug use and his criminal history,” said Stuart London, who represents Mr. Cruz. “There are internal inconsistencies not only in his statements, but also compared to what eyewitnesses and other officers say.”
There will also be arguments over Mr. Mineo’s medical records. David Rudovsky, who teaches law at the University of Pennsylvania and specializes in police misconduct cases, said the discussion of medical records would be critical. “If the prosecutor is able to show to a high degree of certainty that the injuries could have only come about the way the complainant describes them, then they’ve made a lot of ground,” he said.
The lawyers for the officers have indicated that they will argue that Mr. Mineo’s injuries were caused by a previous, unrelated infection. On Wednesday, Mr. Mineo’s lawyers scoffed at that idea. “I have never seen a human being in such pain, mental and physical, in my whole life,” said Kevin L. Mosley, one of the lawyers.
Enlarge This Image
Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times (left); The Associated Press
Richard Kern, right, is accused of brutalizing Michael Mineo, left. Two other officers are also charged.
Related
Times Topics: Michael Mineo | Police Brutality and Misconduct
In 2007, outside a courthouse in Queens, New Black Panthers and police union members made up the cast of vocal partisans watching the trial of the officers who fatally shot Sean Bell.
But on Wednesday, as the case involving accusations of cruel force by the police against a man named Michael Mineo got under way, the only commotion outside the courthouse came from traffic or officers directing visitors.
Inside State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Justice Alan D. Marrus pondered whether he could move the trial to a smaller courtroom for opening statements on Thursday.
“I want to see how many people show up tomorrow,” he decided.
The quiet start to the trial masked explosive charges. Prosecutors say that a group of officers tackled Mr. Mineo, then 24, on a platform at the Prospect Park subway station 15 months ago.
The authorities contend that one of the officers, Richard Kern, repeatedly shoved a retractable baton between Mr. Mineo’s buttocks, then told Mr. Mineo that if he revealed the attack to anyone or went to the hospital, he would be charged with a felony. Two other officers, Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales, helped to cover up the attack, prosecutors charge.
Officer Kern, who was 25 at the time, was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Officers Cruz and Morales, both 26 at the time, were charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct. The three officers were placed on modified assignments and their guns were taken away.
Lawyers for the three officers said that their clients were not guilty. In court, they plan to argue that the attack never happened and that Mr. Mineo’s injuries could have stemmed from a previous infection.
But prosecutors plan to present DNA evidence from Officer Kern’s baton that they say came from Mr. Mineo, who was hospitalized with a torn rectum that became abscessed and had to be surgically drained.
While the criminal case will focus narrowly on the events of that day in 2008, Mr. Mineo has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city. His lawyer contended that the Police Department had been “negligent in training, hiring and supervising” the officers involved. The suit seeks $220 million in damages.
Despite the brutality of the accusations — and their echo of previous events, like the 1997 sodomy of Mr. Louima in a Brooklyn station house — and despite early attention, Mr. Mineo’s case has not sparked the same kind of public protest, or changes of protocol within the department.
Among the reasons, experts said, is the fact that race is not a factor — Officer Kern is white, Officers Cruz and Morales are Hispanic, and Mr. Mineo is white and Hispanic. In addition, other officers ultimately came forward to corroborate Mr. Mineo’s account, blunting charges of a “blue wall of silence.”
“There’s been a lot of pretrial publicity,” said John D. Patten, a lawyer for Officer Kern. “A lot of it is falling off.”
Against that backdrop, prosecutors will attempt the most difficult of tasks: convicting police officers. And in a trial expected to stretch less than a month, both sides will try to draw sharp lines through the cloudy events of Oct. 15, 2008.
Those events played out in full public view. That day, Mr. Mineo, who was working as a body piercer at the time, was smoking a marijuana cigarette with a friend near the Prospect Park station, the authorities said. Upon seeing Officers Kern and Morales in an unmarked car, Mr. Mineo threw away the cigarette and fled into the station, the authorities said.
Several officers tackled Mr. Mineo and handcuffed him. Then, according to prosecutors, at least one witness saw Officer Kern shove the baton between Mr. Mineo’s buttocks over and over, ripping his underwear and the skin beneath, causing him to bleed.
Mr. Mineo screamed about his injuries as he was led away, witnesses told the authorities; when Officer Kern asked him if he was injured, prosecutors say, Mr. Mineo reached into his pants and showed his bloodied hands.
It took more than a week before Mr. Mineo’s accusations became public. They emerged with a torrent of other information, including early denials by the Police Department that Mr. Mineo had been attacked, corroboration of Mr. Mineo’s story by a transit officer and then other details about the lives of two men at the center of the case.
Officer Kern, a skinny native of Woodside, Queens, looks more like a teenager. He had been accused of excessive force twice before, but his lawyer said he was cleared in both cases. One of the cases prompted lawsuits that the city settled for $50,000.
Mr. Mineo, gangly and tall, had a history of mostly minor brushes with the law. After what friends called an itinerant childhood and adolescence — both of his parents are dead — Mr. Mineo worked at a tattoo parlor in Downtown Brooklyn.
Defense lawyers have promised a rigorous questioning of Mr. Mineo’s credibility. “Not just his background, his drug use and his criminal history,” said Stuart London, who represents Mr. Cruz. “There are internal inconsistencies not only in his statements, but also compared to what eyewitnesses and other officers say.”
There will also be arguments over Mr. Mineo’s medical records. David Rudovsky, who teaches law at the University of Pennsylvania and specializes in police misconduct cases, said the discussion of medical records would be critical. “If the prosecutor is able to show to a high degree of certainty that the injuries could have only come about the way the complainant describes them, then they’ve made a lot of ground,” he said.
The lawyers for the officers have indicated that they will argue that Mr. Mineo’s injuries were caused by a previous, unrelated infection. On Wednesday, Mr. Mineo’s lawyers scoffed at that idea. “I have never seen a human being in such pain, mental and physical, in my whole life,” said Kevin L. Mosley, one of the lawyers.