Cochran: 'Mr. Louima has been totally vindicated' MESSAGE BOARD: Race relations Police brutality ALSO: Verdicts in police brutality case Louima: Verdict 'not everything I wanted'

June 8, 1999
Web posted at: 7:59 p.m. EDT (2359 GMT)

In this story: 'It's the wrong verdict' Guiliani denounces attack RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW YORK (CNN) -- There were few sounds of celebration in New York on Tuesday after a federal jury returned a mixed verdict in the trial of four white police officers accused of having a role in the beating and sexual torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.

Louima said he was "disappointed the verdict was not everything he wanted it to be."

His attorney was more positive.

"Mr. Louima has been totally vindicated. Everybody, every reasonable person in America now understands and can appreciate that Mr. Louima told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what happened to him on that fateful night in August," said attorney Johnnie Cochran.

U.S. Attorney Zachary Carter sounded resigned to the jury's decision.

"But we put our best foot forward ... I call it a win," Carter said.

Only one officer was convicted. Jurors found Charles Schwarz guilty of violating Louima's civil rights by holding him down in the police station bathroom as Officer Justin Volpe sodomized him with a wooden stick.

Volpe pleaded guilty before the trial went to the jury.

'It's the wrong verdict'

Schwarz sat impassively when the verdicts were read Tuesday. But his supporters shrieked with each pronouncement of guilty. His attorney vowed to vindicate Schwarz.

Officer Thomas Bruder was acquitted

"He knows what he did and what he didn't do, and he didn't do it. It's the wrong verdict," said attorney Stephen Worth.

Schwarz feels "disbelief, shock, rage... all those things. That's the nightmare he's living through right now," Worth said after his client was taken into custody.

Three other officers were acquitted of all charges involved in this trial.

Officer Thomas Wiese said nothing to reporters after his acquittal, letting his attorney speak for him.

"Clearly we're thrilled with the verdict," said attorney Joseph Tacopina. "We have nothing to say to Louima's family at all."

When Officer Thomas Bruder was asked whether he was considering going back to work at the police station, he said, "I'm going to go home and go to bed."

But Bruder voiced no ill will toward the man whose accusations put him on trial.

Bellomo: 'Nothing I can say can take away the pain that this man felt'

"I have nothing bad to say about Abner Louima -- a horrible thing obviously happened to him -- and it's understandable and it's not his fault. I'm just glad the jury was attentive enough to see the facts," Bruder said.

Sgt. Michael Bellomo, who was also acquitted, also did not denounce the man who accused him.

"I feel sorry for Mr. Louima. I had nothing to do with that assault. I wasn't around when it happened. Nothing I can say can take away the pain that this man felt," Bellomo said.

The sergeant refused to badmouth Schwarz, a fellow officer.

"My heart goes out to the Schwarz family, and I really don't want to comment on Officer Schwarz right now," Bellomo said.

But New York's mayor had some strong words about the assault.

"I thought the actions here were horrendous and perverse and sick, and I think every police officer felt that way," said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

"I think they found it reprehensible and perverse, and some kind of display of a violent sickness," he said.

Giuliani congratulated the police department and the police officers who made the convictions possible with their testimony.

But the attorneys who are handling Louima's civil case against the officers, the city of New York and the Police Benevolent Association said it was too early for congratulations.

Bruder, Wiese and Schwarz face another trial on a charge of obstruction of justice.

"This count, we call the wall of justice count, the blue wall of silence count, because this is the count that alleges that Mr. Wiese, Mr. Bruder, Mr. Schwarz covered up what happened in the bathroom, and this will be the trial which takes place next," said lawyer Barry Scheck.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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