LOUIMA'S GRILLED ON CHANGES IN TALE
Defense lawyers hammered away at Abner Louima yesterday, grilling the Haitian immigrant about differing accounts he has given of his torture at the hands of cops. On his second day of testimony at the trial of three cops accused of trying to cover up part of the brutal attack, Louima admitted giving inconsistent testimony. Prosecutors in Brooklyn Federal Court sought to blame the various accounts on Louima's poor health and mental anguish in the days after he was initially questioned about the Aug. 9, 1997, assault, which occurred in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct stationhouse. But Louima seemed to have trouble explaining why he failed to mention that someone opened and closed the bathroom door just before Ex-Officer Justin Volpe shoved a wooden stick into his rectum. Louima was sodomized by Volpe after being arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub. Volpe pleaded guilty during his trial. Another former cop, Charles Schwarz, was convicted last year of holding Louima down during the attack. When a defense lawyer asked Louima why he didn't mention a third person when he testified before three grand juries and at trial last year, Louima said, "I didn't remember it at that time.
" He told the lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, that he remembered it just before the current trial. "Did anyone ever tell you that only two officers in the bathroom was a problem in this case?
" Tacopina asked. "No," Louima replied. Tacopina's client, Officer Thomas Wiese, says he walked into the bathroom after the assault but didn't realize what had transpired. Wiese also told investigators that Schwarz wasn't in the bathroom. Wiese, Schwarz and another cop, Thomas Bruder, are on trial for allegedly trying to conceal Schwarz's role in the attack, plotting instead to blame the incident solely on Volpe. Defense lawyers have argued that there was no coverup because Schwarz wasn't in the bathroom during the attack and was wrongfully convicted. Louima was asked why he told a state grand jury that he didn't know what the second officer in the bathroom was doing while he was being sodomized - and why he said at that time that no one held him down. Louima responded that his memory is better now. "Five days after the incident your memory wasn't as good as it is today?
" Tacopina asked. "Yes," Louima said. "I was really in bad shape," he added under further questioning by Assistant U.
S. Attorney Alan Vinegrad, citing his persistent pain and fear that he was going to die. Louima suffered severe internal injuries from the attack and was hospitalized for more than two months.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/louima-grilled-tale-article-1.862578#ixzz2f5SYIvov
No comments:
Post a Comment