White police accused of sexually brutalizing black man with toilet plunger

Jet, Sept 1, 1997

A Haitian immigrant who was arrested in a nightclub fight in New York accused White officers of taking him into a station house bathroom and sexually brutalizing him with the handle of a toilet plunger.

"They said, `Take this, nigger,' and stuck the stick in my rear end," said 30-year-old Abner Louima in an interview from the hospital, where he was listed in critical condition after surgery to repair a puncture in his small intestine and an injury to his bladder.

The investigation into Louima's arrest intensified after doctors confirmed that the injuries appeared to have been caused by a blunt instrument.

Officer Justin Volpe, 25, surrendered to internal affairs and was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and first degree assault, police officials said. Officer Charles Schwarz was charged with first degree assault.

Also arrested were Officers Thomas Bruder and Thomas Wiese, who were each charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon -- a police radio with which he and Wiese allegedly beat Louima in their patrol car.

The NY Daily News reported that Louima identified two of the officers from photographs shown to him in his hospital bed.

"The alleged conduct involved is reprehensible, done by anyone at anytime," said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "Allegedly done by police officers, it's even more reprehensible."

Louima was one of two men who police said interfered with officers trying to break up a fight between two women outside a nightclub called Club Rendez-Vous in Brooklyn, NY. Both men were arrested on charges of assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and obstructing justice. The charges against Louima have since been dropped.

Louima told the Daily News that the trouble began when he was handcuffed and put in a patrol car. When he protested, officers kicked him and beat him with police radios, he said.

Louima said at the 70th Precinct stationhouse in Brooklyn, officers pulled down his pants and led him to the bathroom, where they sodomized him with the plunger and then jammed the handle in his mouth. An ambulance took him to the hospital.

Louima says he plans to file a civil lawsuit against the city.