Ex-Cop Sentenced To 30 Years In Prison For Torturing Haitian Immigrant In New York With Broomstick

Jet, Jan 10, 2000

A White former patrolman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for torturing a Haitian immigrant with a broken broomstick in one of the most shocking acts of police brutality New York has ever seen.

Justin Volpe, 27, who pleaded guilty to violating the victim's civil rights, could have gotten life without parole for the 1997 attack.

"I hurt many people. I was and still am ashamed ... I am extremely sorry," Volpe told U.S. District Judge Eugene Nickerson. "I must and I will pay for my crime."

Volpe rammed a broomstick into Abner Louima's rectum in a police station bathroom after arresting Louima. Police said Volpe mistakenly thought Louima had punched him from behind during a melee outside a Brooklyn nightclub.

Louima, who addressed the court during the sentencing, did not ask the judge for any specific punishment.

"I suffered three operations to repair my bladder, colon and intestines. I spent over 2 1/2 months in the hospital, Louima said. "Sometimes I ask God, `Why me?' and why he let me live. But when I look at my family, my kids, my wife and all my friends and supporters, that gives me courage."

The case strained relations between the Police Department and minorities and sparked demonstrations against police brutality. Louima has also filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit alleging police were shielded by a "blue wall of silence."

The judge said the 30-year sentence was severe enough to punish Volpe's "barbarous misuse of power" without capitulating to the intense public pressure.

"It would be difficult to overstate the harm Mr. Volpe inflicted on Mr. Louima, the police department and society at large," Nickerson said.

Prosecutor Alan Vinegard had asked for the maximum, saying Volpe had repeatedly lied by contending among other things that Louima's injuries were caused by gay sex. Vinegard also noted that at the time of the assault, Volpe bragged to other officers about "how he broke a man down."

"He actually went and retrieved the stick with Mr. Louima's feces still on it and walked around the precinct, brandishing this feces-filled stick in front of his fellow police officers," Vinegard said.