NYC Police Officers Indicted for Assault

A grand jury in New York City voted to indict three police officers, Dec. 6, on assault charges. The officers allegedly beat and used a police baton to sodomize a man last October in a Brooklyn subway station. Three city cops stopped Michael Mineo, 24, at the Prospect Park subway station. They suspected that he had drugs on his person, chased and tackled him when he ran, and found no drugs.    

Injuries Necessitating Hospitalization

According to Mineo, one of the officers jabbed a police baton into his buttocks, hard enough to cause internal injuries that required his hospitalization. Mineo, who works at a tattoo parlor in Brooklyn, said that the injury caused him weeks of physical pain. His attorneys have not released his medical records, but investigators have stated that these records support Mineo's assertions about his injuries. 

Assault Charge

The grand jury was dealing with the case since late October. A New York Transit Bureau officer came forward in November and testified that he saw Patrolman Richard Kern, 25, jab a baton into Mineo's buttocks. Kern, a four-year veteran of the NYPD, is expected to be arraigned Dec. 9 on an assault charge. His lawyer, John D. Patten, said that his client would plead not guilty to any charges. 

Calls to Mind the Abner Louima Case

After the October assault, the Police Department eventually placed Kern and three other officers on modified duty: 

• Andrew Morales
• Alex Cruz
• Noel Jugraj 

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly supported the Brooklyn district attorney's call for a grand jury. The Mineo case calls to mind the similar, confirmed injuries of Abner Louima, sodomized with a broomstick by NYPD officers in 1997 in a police station house. 

(Source: New York Times) 

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