NYPD Officer Gets 15 Years in Attack

A New York police officer was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years and eight months in prison for holding down a Haitian immigrant as he was sexually tortured, and two other officers who tried to cover up the violence got five years each.

Officer Charles Schwarz, who continued to maintain his innocence at his sentencing in U.S. District Court, had faced the possibility of life in prison for the Aug. 9, 1997, assault on Abner Louima.

The incident, in the bathroom of a Brooklyn precinct house, left Louima, now 33, severely injured and sparked outrage over the issue of police brutality in New York.

Schwarz was convicted at two trials, the first for restraining Louima during the assault and the second for conspiring to cover up the crime.

Another officer, Justin Volpe, pleaded guilty last year to violating Louima’s civil rights by participating in the attack and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Louima testified that Volpe rammed a wooden stick up his rectum during the assault.

Officers Thomas Bruder and Thomas Wiese were found guilty of obstruction of justice in covering up Schwarz’s role in the attack, and they were sentenced to the maximum of five years apiece in prison.

All the officers are white, and Louima is black.

Before he was sentenced, Schwarz read a statement attacking Judge Eugene Nickerson and prosecutors in the racially charged case.

“I expected to receive a fair trial and I did not,” said Schwarz, who was also ordered to pay $277,500 in restitution to Louima.

Schwarz says he was nowhere near the precinct bathroom where the attack took place.

The judge said he gave Schwarz less than the maximum sentence because of the possibility that he might be abused in prison, his military record and his secondary role in the attack.

“Simply put, Volpe wielded the stick,” Nickerson said.

Afterward, Schwarz smiled at his wife, Andra, and was led away.

The Louima case, as well as the fatal police shooting of another immigrant, Amadou Diallo, in February 1999 as he stood unarmed in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building, sparked protest marches and angered many New Yorkers, who accused the police of using excessive force against minorities in fighting crime.

The federal courtroom was packed for the sentencing, and those attending included Louima.

Afterward, the soft-spoken Louima told reporters: “I was hoping for the maximum sentence, but justice is served. It proves no one is above the law.”

The prosecution argued that Bruder and Wiese made 58 telephone calls to each other in the four days after the assault and fabricated a story to get Schwarz off the hook.