5 N.Y. Officers Charged in Torture Case

NEW YORK — It is Rodney King, East--without the videotape.

Prosecutors filed federal civil rights charges Thursday against four New York policemen in the alleged torturing of a Haitian immigrant last August that sparked national outrage. A supervisor was charged with attempting a cover-up.

The federal indictments supersede state charges previously filed against the policemen, who are accused of beating and then sexually assaulting Abner Louima with a wooden stick in a police station bathroom. Louima had been brought to the station after he was arrested during a brawl outside a Brooklyn nightclub.

Two of the policemen were charged also with falsely arresting and beating Patrick Antoine, another Haitian immigrant, in a patrol car.

All the defendants, who are white, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in federal court in Brooklyn and were released on $100,000 personal recognizance bonds.

“I am ashamed any human being would do this to another,” said Police Commissioner Howard Safir, who warned it would be unfair to “broad brush” the entire police force.

“It was an act of inexplicable violence that I have never seen before . . . the tag team kind of violence that is alleged here,” added Brooklyn Dist. Atty. Charles J. Hynes, whose office worked closely with federal prosecutors.

After the indictments, Louima told a news conference that “I believe that my suffering will not have been in vain if it deters other acts of police brutality.”

Court papers charged that officers Justin Volpe, Thomas Bruder, Charles Schwarz and Thomas Weise first beat Louima in a police car while his hands were handcuffed behind his back, then later Volpe and Schwarz assaulted Louima in a bathroom of the 70th precinct in Brooklyn “by kicking him and by shoving a wooden stick into his rectum and mouth . . . “

Sgt. Michael Bellomo, the patrol supervisor for the 70th Precinct at the time of the incident, was charged with lying to federal investigators.

“Sgt. Bellomo was acting as a professional,” his lawyer, George Cerrone, said. “ . . . There is no cover-up. This is the government second-guessing some decisions made in a fast-moving, riot situation.”

“The day has finally come. The shoe has dropped,” said Stephen Worth, attorney for Schwarz. “Let’s go forward.”

Louima spent two months in the hospital after his bladder and colon were ruptured. He required four operations.

Like the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King on March 3, 1991, after a high-speed chase in Los Angeles, the attack on Louima brought outrage. Thousands of demonstrators, many of them Haitians, marched on City Hall protesting police brutality and the treatment of minorities.

The Louima case became a rallying cry for opponents of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Giuliani quickly visited Louima in the hospital and conferred with Haitian community leaders. The mayor condemned the attack, and, with Safir, reassigned key officers at the precinct.

Giuliani also demanded that police personnel tell investigators anything they know about the incident.

The federal indictment carries heavier penalties than state charges of beating and sexually attacking Louima, charges that are being withdrawn.

Volpe and Schwarz would have faced a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted under state law. Under federal law, they could be imprisoned for life. Lawyers say that federal rules also make it easier to introduce evidence.

Louima, who is suing the city for $155 million, is being represented by Johnnie Cochran, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. All three lawyers represented O.J. Simpson in his double-murder trial.