March 7, 2000

3 Guilty in Louima Case

Coverup of assault in Brooklyn stationhouse

By MIKE CLAFFEY, BOB LIFF and HELEN PETERSON
Daily News Staff Writers

Emotions exploded in a Brooklyn courtroom yesterday as ex-cop Charles Schwarz and two other officers were found guilty of trying to cover up Schwarz's role in the Abner Louima sodomy attack.

Gasps and cries filled the packed courtroom — and the three cops stared ahead and gaped in apparent disbelief — as the jury forewoman announced that each officer had been found guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice.

"This is a travesty," said Officer Thomas Bruder, his mother sobbing, after hearing the verdict. "There's no justice in this country."

While being led away by U.S. marshals, Schwarz swung his fist in the air. His cries and curses filtered into the courtroom. "They convicted me twice," he could be heard screaming.

Schwarz's attorney Ronald Fischetti raced to request a suicide watch for the former cop. Bruder and Officer Thomas Wiese were fired from the NYPD hours after the jury found them guilty.

The verdict after four days of deliberations in Brooklyn Federal Court marked the end of the second criminal trial stemming from the vicious assault in the bathroom of Brooklyn's 70th Precinct stationhouse — a crime whose stark brutality and racial overtones roiled the city.

Louima was not in court, but his brother, Jonas, lauded the verdict: "Abner has always had faith in our system of justice. The verdict today reinforces that faith."

Still, those close to the victim said the victory was tinged by the crime's lingering horror.

"We are not going to be opening any champagne bottles," said a cousin, Samuel Nicolas. "A man was brutally sodomized, he spent 64 days in the hospital, had to undergo three surgeries and is still recuperating."

Schwarz was previously convicted of holding Louima down while then-cop Justin Volpe sodomized the Haitian immigrant with a stick.

Schwarz has been battling to have that verdict overturned and hoped an acquittal on the federal conspiracy charges would bolster his chances. He contends he was outside in his patrol car as the attack unfolded.

Bruder and Wiese, each free on $100,000 bail, and Schwarz's wife, Andra, were met by a sea of support as they left court.

"You tell the truth, and this is what happens," Bruder said, visibly enraged. "I'll be fine. Nobody's stronger than me. I'm stronger than anyone in this building."

Andra Schwarz — who has become a symbol of her husband's fight for freedom — said the verdict would not discourage her.

"It's not over, it's not over," she said while embracing her mother-in-law. Her husband, already facing life behind bars, now faces another five-year sentence on the conspiracy charge. Bruder and Wiese also face five-year sentences.

Lawyers for the three cops said they would appeal.

The jury of six blacks, one Hispanic and five whites deliberated for 24 hours over four days.

Prosecutors offered evidence of dozens of phone calls between the three cops in the aftermath of the Aug. 9, 1997, assault, arguing they were concocting a cover story to protect Schwarz.

Defense lawyers said the cops were just comforting one another.

On Friday afternoon, the jurors asked for the last piece of evidence for their deliberations: readbacks of statements Wiese and Bruder made to investigators in which both said Schwarz was not in the bathroom during the assault.

Wiese told Internal Affairs cops that he walked into the bathroom after the assault and didn't realize what had happened.

His statement conflicted with testimony from Volpe, who appeared for the defense and said Wiese was in the bathroom but did nothing to help him or to stop the attack.

A $155 million lawsuit filed by Louima against the cops and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association has been on hold because of the criminal case but is expected to get underway in the next few weeks.

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said, "the verdicts today 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 deceit."