Guilty of Cover-Up
Jury: Schwarz, 2 colleagues
lied
about Louima assault
By Patricia Hurtado
Staff Writer
FORMER
NEW YORK CITY police officer Charles Schwarz and two colleagues
were convicted yesterday of conspiring to conceal Schwarz' role
in the sexual assault of Abner Louima three years ago.
The federal
jury of six blacks, five whites and one Latino concluded that
Schwarz, Thomas Bruder, 33, and Thomas Wiese, 36, lied to cover
up Schwarz' role in the Aug. 9, 1997, assault in a restroom of
the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn.
Schwarz,
34, convicted last year of restraining Louima while Justin Volpe
sodomized him with a wooden stick, looked initially stunned,
then enraged as the verdict was announced. He cursed at his lawyer,
Ronald Fischetti, and said, "They're -- -- -- liars."
He reddened
then punched the air angrily with his fist as he was led away
by U.S. marshals, and could be heard cursing and yelling from
a holding pen adjacent to the courtroom, "They convicted
me twice. Two -- -- -- times."
Schwarz
faces up to life in prison for his federal conviction last June
for depriving Louima of his civil rights.
No sentencing
date was set yesterday, but all three face up to five years imprisonment
on the conspiracy convictions.
Louima
was not in the courtroom, but at a news conference after the
verdict, Samuel Nicolas, a cousin and family spokesman, said: "This
is not a happy occasion for us. We are not opening champagne
bottles. Abner is still recuperating ... Now we can start the
healing process."
U.S. District
Court Judge Eugene Nickerson, who presided over the case in Brooklyn,
yesterday set an April 7 return date for the defendants.
When the
verdict was announced, Bruder stared in disbelief, saying: "There
is no justice. This is a travesty."
Apparently
overcome by emotion, he first put his head down on the defense
table and then buried his head on the shoulder of his lawyer,
Stuart London.
Wiese stared
straight ahead, but after the jury was led out of the courtroom,
he then embraced Bruder.
The defendants'
supporters and their families erupted with the verdict: Bruder's
girlfriend burst into tears and Wiese's mother collapsed in the
hallway outside the courtroom, sobbing: "I taught him to
tell the truth. You told the truth."
Her son
cradled her in his arms, saying, "I did, mom."
Bruder
told his mother, Doris, and supporters: "You tell the truth
and this is what happens. Nobody's stronger than me in this whole
damn building. We're going to fight this, it's not over."
Schwarz'
wife, Andra, hugged her mother-in-law, Estelle Ohnmeiss, and
sobbed as Fischetti comforted them, saying, "I'm sorry.
I did all I could. It ain't over."
Bruder
and Wiese, who both remained free on $100,000 bail, left court
without comment. Both were cleared last year of beating Louima
in a squad car en route to the precinct, but were immediately
fired from the force with yesterday's conviction.
In a prepared
statement, Giuliani said he respected the panel's verdict, saying,
"I'm sure that all New Yorkers and police officers find the
behavior of the defendants in this case and the related case to
be reprehensible."
Brooklyn
U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, who was on last year's prosecution
team, told reporters outside the courthouse, "The verdict
should send a message that within the Police Department there
is no greater betrayal of the badge and of the brotherhood than
to ensnare a fellow officer in a web of lies and in deceit."
Alan Vinegrad,
Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney who headed both prosecutions, said,
"I thought Schwarz' testimony was incredible on its face...
Obviously they found him guilty notwithstanding his testimony that
he had nothing to do with what happened in the bathroom, nor with
any coverup."
Fischetti
asked federal prison officials to place his client on a suicide
watch, saying Schwarz was "devastated."
"I
am convinced he was never in that bathroom and we will make appeals
from now until doomsday to prove that fact," Fischetti said.
Defense
lawyers argued during the trial that Schwarz was never in the
bathroom, and therefore no cover-up occurred. They called Volpe,
who is serving a 30-year prison term after pleading guilty to
the assault, as their first witness. Schwarz also took the stand
and proclaimed his innocence.
Prosecutors
Vinegrad and Lauren Resnick charged during the trial that the
defendants gave ever-changing stories to investigators and colleagues
about who they saw escort Louima to the bathroom to give Schwarz
an alibi.
They charged
that the defendants concocted and updated their stories to clear
Schwarz through scores of telephone calls during a four-day period
as witnesses came forward.
Initially,
Wiese and Bruder told investigators that Volpe alone led Louima
to the bathroom. But after a rookie cop, Eric Turetzky, identified
Schwarz as the officer he saw lead Louima past the cells in the
direction of the bathroom, both changed their story to say that
Wiese and Volpe led Louima to the bathroom.
Wiese even
told state investigators that he had stayed outside throughout
the attack petting a puppy but upon hearing a noise, entered
the bathroom and rescued Louima. A day later, Bruder changed
his story to include this detail about Wiese and the puppy.
Volpe testified
Schwarz was not in the bathroom during the assault but also insisted
that Wiese had been in the bathroom throughout the entire assault
but never stopped it.
And Schwarz
and Wiese initially told a police union trustee that Volpe alone
led Louima away from the precinct's front desk. But when Schwarz
testified, he said he thought Wiese led Louima away. Schwarz
also testified he had been outside the precinct searching his
police cruiser for contraband at the time of the attack.
The case
is not the last prosecution stemming from the attack: two Street
Crime Unit officers, Rolando Aleman and Francisco Rosario, are
slated to go on trial next for conspiring to make false statements
to federal investigators about what they saw the morning of the
attack.
Louima's
multimillion-dollar federal civil lawsuit against the city and
police union is also pending.
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