White N.Y. Cop Pleads Guilty In Torture Case

Jet, June 14, 1999

A White police officer accused of torturing a Haitian immigrant with a wooden stick in a stationhouse bathroom recently pleaded guilty in the torture case.

Justin Volpe, the central figure in a brutality case that heightened racial tensions in New York, pleaded guilty to civil rights charges three weeks into the trial. Four other White officers remain on trial (JET, Dec. 7, 1998).

The officer told U.S. District Judge Eugene Nickerson that he rammed a stick into the rectum of Abner Louima. He also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for threatening Louima if he ever told anyone.

Volpe, 27, said he acted in a fit of rage because he mistakenly believed Louima had punched him while police tried to quell a brawl outside a nightclub in August 1997.

Volpe admitted his role only after four fellow officers testified that he had borrowed gloves he later returned covered with blood and that he showed off the stick and boasted, "I took a man down."

"Your honor, if I could just let the record reflect I'm sorry for hurting my family," Volpe said.

Two hours later, he was dismissed from the police force.

The most serious charge against Volpe-that he deprived Louima of his civil rights by sexually assaulting him-carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

Officer Charles Schwarz is accused of holding down Louima, a 32-year-old security guard, in the bathroom assault.

Schwarz and Officers Thomas Wiese and Thomas Bruder are charged with beating Louima on the way to the police station after his arrest on charges he punched Volpe.

Sgt. Michael Bellomo, their supervisor, is charged with covering up the incident.

Volpe, the son of a retired detective, decided to plead guilty as charged after he heard the damning testimony of the other officers.

Detective Eric Turetzky testified that he saw a disheveled and sullen Volpe "swinging the stick around like a sword and hitting it against the wall" around the time of the bathroom assault.

Officer Mark Schofield testified that Volpe borrowed a pair of black leather gloves and returned them covered with blood. Officer Michael Schoer testified Volpe put the end of the excrement-soiled stick in Louima's face.

No sentencing date was set.