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Ex- police officer pleads innocent to perjury in torture trial

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former New York City police officer Charles Schwarz entered an innocent plea Wednesday to two counts of perjury related to his testimony in the Abner Louima police torture trial.

Defense attorney Ron Fischetti entered the plea for Schwarz in Brooklyn before U.S. District Court Judge Reena Raggi.

A federal grand jury indicted Schwarz last week, charging that he lied twice under oath during testimony on February 23, 2000, about the identity of the officers present during the 1997 assault in a 70th Precinct station house bathroom.

Fischetti's co-counsel, Diarmuid White, said the defense will seek to have the perjury charges thrown out.

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Officer Justin Volpe was convicted of sodomizing Louima with a broom handle, causing severe internal injuries to the Haitian immigrant.

In 1999, a jury found Schwarz guilty of violating Louima's civil rights by pinning him down during the attack, although Volpe has said that Schwarz was not involved in the assault. A year later, a second jury convicted Schwarz, Thomas Bruder and Thomas Wiese of conspiring to obstruct a grand jury investigation.

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of the three in late February. A new trial for Schwarz on the civil rights charges is set for June 24.

On Wednesday, prosecutors sought to have the perjury charges heard during Schwarz's retrial, while defense attorneys pushed for a separate trial. Raggi said she would consider the issue April 12.

Schwarz, 36, was released on $1 million bail in early March after his earlier conviction was overturned. He had served nearly three years of a prison term of 15 years and eight months. As part of his sentence, Schwarz also was ordered to pay Louima $277,495 in restitution.

"This case has consumed over five years of my life, including almost three years of incarceration, and I've been saying from day one I'm innocent," Schwarz told reporters after Wednesday's arraignment. "And it's something I intend to fight ... . I was not in that bathroom."

The Louima assault occurred August 9, 1997, after police arrested him in a scuffle outside a night club.

Volpe pleaded guilty in 1999 to violating Louima's civil rights and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. His conviction was upheld previously by the court.