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Abner Louima testifies at retrial of ex-officer

Charles Schwarz

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors will call police officers to testify Tuesday against a former colleague in the retrial of Charles Schwarz, who is accused of violating the civil rights of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima by participating in a brutal attack in a police station bathroom.

Monday, Louima took the stand as the first witness in the retrial. Schwarz is charged with restraining Louima while another police officer, Justin Volpe, inserted a broken broomstick in his rectum.

Louima remained calm and unemotional during more than 90 minutes of rigorous cross-examination by Ronald Fischetti, the attorney for Schwarz. Fischetti sought to make Louima's credibility an issue as he raised numerous inconsistencies in Louima's past statements to investigators in the nearly five years since the August 1997 assault.

Fischetti questioned a statement Louima made at a news conference held from his hospital bed in the days after the incident. Louima said at the time that his attackers said "this is not Dinkins Time, this is Giuliaini Time." Louima long ago admitted he uttered the politically charged falsehood in an effort to bring attention to his case.

RESOURCES • Indictment: U.S. v. Schwarz  • 2nd Circuit decision setting aside Schwarz's original conviction: US v. Volpe, et al.  (FindLaw documents, PDF format)     LEGAL RESOURCES Latest Legal News Law Library FindLaw Consumer Center Select a topic Bankruptcy Discrimination Divorce Estate Planning Landlord-Tenant Personal Injury Taxes

David Dinkins, a liberal African-American, was mayor of New York from 1990 through 1993. Rudy Giuliani, a white conservative, was mayor of the city from 1994 through 2001.

The jury also heard opening arguments Monday. Schwarz's 1998 conviction in the attack on Louima was overturned earlier this year by a federal appeals court. The other officer, Justin Volpe, pleaded guilty to sodomizing Louima and is now serving a 30-year prison sentence.

Prosecutor Lauren Resnick called the assault on Louima "a humiliating brand of revenge."

"Both Volpe and Schwarz each believed they were assaulted," Resnick said in her opening statement Monday, referring to Volpe's claims that Louima had punched him during a brawl outside a Brooklyn nightclub. The two officers "decided Abner Louima would pay a severe price for assaulting a New York City police officer," she said.

Louima has testified at three previous trials in connection with this case. At each, he said that the policeman who held him down in the bathroom was the driver of the patrol car in which he was brought to the station, but he has never been able to positively identify Schwarz as his attacker.

Louima received an $8.7 million settlement from the city and now lives in Miami.

Schwarz has denied involvement, and Volpe has also said Schwarz did not take part.

Monday, defense attorneys said prosecutors had the wrong man. "I will ask you to right a terrible wrong," Fischetti said to the jury. "Being a victim does not give Abner Louima the right to lie, commit perjury and implicate an innocent man."

A federal appeals court threw out Schwarz's original conviction, citing what the judge called an inadequate defense and a jury tainted by news reports about the case.

Five other former officers have been convicted in the case.

Louima received an $8.7 million settlement from the city and now lives in Miami.