March 7, 2000

'We're Going to Fight,' Says Wife of Ex-Officer

By HELEN PETERSON
Daily News Staff Writer

She stood amid tears and roiling emotions, her voice steady and calm. For months, Andra Schwarz has led a campaign to overturn her husband's conviction for his role in the Abner Louima sodomy attack.

Yesterday, after Charles Schwarz was again convicted, this time on federal conspiracy charges, his wife again kept her composure as others wept. She vowed not to give up.

"We're going to fight. We're going to keep fighting," the paralegal said minutes after the verdict.

Nearby, Officer Thomas Bruder consoled his girlfriend, who bent to retrieve a string of black rosary beads from the floor. "It's not over yet. I'm never giving up this fight," he said.

Co-defendant Thomas Wiese embraced his wife but then broke away from her to comfort his mother, who collapsed along the side of a corridor wall. "You told the truth. You told the truth," she told him.

"It's okay," Wiese said, crouching down to hug her as she sat on the floor. Wiese and Bruder were later fired by the NYPD.

"It's a courtroom of injustice. God help anybody that has to be tried before a federal court," said Estelle Ohnmeiss, Schwarz's mom.

Minutes later, Andra Schwarz faced a throng of reporters and television cameras outside Brooklyn Federal Court.

"We're still in shock. It's difficult for us to put into words the disappointment, the dismay, the horror," she said in the bright sunshine. "We know that God is on our side, and we're going to see this through. We're not going to give up. I'm very confident that this is going to work out."

She said she believes her husband shares her confidence, even after his emotional, screaming reaction to the verdict. "It's going to take a while for him to get his faith back up again, but he will; he's strong," she said. She alluded to the recent trial of four cops in the Amadou Diallo shooting in the Bronx as she said, "This is the worst possible time, I think, for police officers to get a fair trial."

Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch suggested anti-police sentiment stemming from the Diallo shooting trial got to jurors. "This was a jury that should have been sequestered, with the anti-police atmosphere that was surrounding the steps of that courtroom," Lynch said.

With Kenneth R. Bazinet