'I BROKE A MAN DOWN': NYPD COP WHO SODOMIZED ABNER LOUIMA GETS EARLY RELEASE, BACK IN NEW YORK
NYPD OFFICER JUSTIN VOLPE RAPED ABNER LOUIMA WITH A BROKEN BROOM STICK IN A BROOKLYN POLICE PRECINCT BATHROOM IN 1997. HE QUALIFIED FOR EARLY RELEASE UNDER TRUMP LAW.
Former NYPD officer Justin Volpe in federal prison in 2004. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Grace & Robert Volpe via GQ magazine.
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NYPD officer Justin Volpe's sexual torture of a wrongfully arrested detainee named Abner Louima in 1997 remains among America's most horrifying examples of police brutality—even after two decades and scores of videos capturing unjustified police violence including murder.
Now, after serving just 24 years of his 30-year federal prison sentence, Volpe is back home in New York thanks in part to a law signed by former President Donald J. Trump. The new law made it possible for some federal prisoners to earn more time off their sentences.
Volpe was transferred from a federal prison in Minnesota to "community confinement" back in New York on Apr. 13, a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson confirmed to The Free Lance.
Community confinement "means the inmate is in either home confinement or a ... halfway house," BOP spokesperson Benjamin O'Cone said in an email.
The Staten Island house where disgraced NYPD officer Justin Volpe may reside after being granted early release by federal prison officials, complete with blue-colored Donald Trump flag. Photo Credit: Google Maps.
Volpe's crimes shocked the Nation.
When last call came at Club Rendez-Vous on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn on Aug. 9, 1997, a crowd gathered in front of the club to watch two women fist-fighting. NYPD officers, including Volpe, responded to stop the fight and clear the crowd. People resisted. They threw bottles and hurled drunken insults at police.
Volpe grabbed a member of the crowd who held up a correction officer's badge and slapped the badge out of the his hand. Abner Louima, then 30 and working as a licensed private security guard, witnessed Volpe's attack on the drunken correction officer. Louima "began yelling at him regarding his treatment" of the man, federal prosecutors said.
Volpe turned on Louima. While Volpe was confronting Louima, he was struck by another member of the crowd who fled. Volpe thought it was Louima. Louima temporarily escaped Volpe, but was captured and beat by other cops. When Volpe found out, he went to where they were and beat Louima too.
The cops handcuffed Louima and took him to the 70th Precinct. Volpe found a wooden broomstick, broke it in two over his knee, and hid half of it in a bathroom. Another cop led the handcuffed Louima into the bathroom. Volpe followed.
“I’m going to do something to you. If you yell or make any noise, I’ll kill you,” Volpe threatened Louima once inside.
Volpe forced Louima to the ground near a toilet and kicked him in the groin. When Louima screamed, Volpe silenced Louima with a boot to his mouth. Volpe and another cop beat Louima. Then, while the other cop held Louima down, Volpe sodomized him with the sharp end of the broken broomstick. Volpe removed the stick, held it to Louima’s mouth and taunted him with it.
Louima was taken to a jail cell. On the way, Volpe threatened to kill him if he reported what cops did to him.
Volpe and other officers went to a local hospital later that morning. They sought treatment for minor injuries sustained during the scuffle outside the club. At the hospital, Volpe told other officers "I broke a man down.”
Louima was taken to the hospital four hours later. Police didn’t take him to the hospital closest to the 70th Precinct. The NYPD took him to Coney Island hospital instead, which lacked a trauma center. He sat there, guarded by 7-0 cops, for hours. Cops told nurses Louima was injured in consensual gay sex gone awry. Surgeons finally discovered the truth in the afternoon. A nurse named Magalie Laurent reported it to the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau that evening.
New York Daily News, Aug. 13, 1997.
New York Daily News columnist Mike McAlary reported it to the world four days later.
"This is a tale straight from the police dungeon, an allegation of brutality at the hands of cops from Brooklyn's 70th Precinct that seems so impossible, so crudely medieval," McAlary wrote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning report,"The frightful whisperings from a Coney Island hospital bed."
"They said, 'Take this, nigger,' and stuck the stick in my rear end," McAlary quoted Louima saying.
7,000 people marched on City Hall in protest, CNN reported. They shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and parts of Broadway in lower Manhattan. Protesters called it "Day of Outrage Against Police Brutality and Harassment."
"We're here to make sure the Louima family gets justice," DeLacy Davis, identified as a New Jersey police officer, said. "We're here to send a message to America that people of color will not sit idly by when someone is brutalized."
Volpe and NYPD officers Thomas Wiese, Charles Schwarz and Thomas Bruder were charged by federal prosecutors with conspiring to deny Louima his constitutional rights by assaulting him and covering it up. Schwarz, Wiese and Bruder were convicted, but a federal appeals court vacated their convictions. Prosecutors, the court said, did not present enough evidence to convict either Wiese or Bruder. Schwarz was denied a fair trial, and was entitled to a new one.
Sgt. Michael Bellamo was charged solely with facilitating the cover-up. He was acquitted by trial.
Prosecutors accused Schwarz of leading Louima into the bathroom and holding him down for Volpe . He was only found guilty of perjury at his retrial. However, Federal judge Reena Raggi said she found it “more than highly probable" Schwarz was guilty as charged. She sentenced him to five years in federal prison.
Today Schwarz makes six figures working for the New York City Housing Authority as a carpenter, the New York Post reported in 2019.
Volpe pleaded guilty to violating Louima’s civil rights and witness intimidation in 1999.
``In the bathroom of the precinct, I sodomized Mr. Abner Louima with a stick, then threatened to kill him if he told anybody,″ Volpe confessed.
He cried, apologized and begged for mercy at his sentencing.
"I was and still am ashamed and deeply regretful for what I did," the then-27 year-old Volpe told Brooklyn Federal judge Eugene H. Nickerson. "What I did not only hurt Abner Louima and his family, but conjured up the worst fears in people."
"This fear was worsened by me being a police officer," Volpe added.
Judge Nickerson spared Volpe the life sentence federal officials said his crimes called for under strict federal sentencing guidelines. Instead, he sentenced Volpe to 30 years flat, no chance of parole.
"Short of intentional murder, one cannot imagine a more barbarous misuse of power than Volpe's," Judge Nickerson told the disgraced former cop.
Louima responded to Volpe’s 30-year sentence by saying he hoped it “will send a clear message that no one is above the law.''
Volpe applied for compassionate early release because of the Wuhan virus pandemic 21 years later, in December 2020, court records show. He submitted a handwritten petition without a lawyer. He alleged he had been infected with the virus but that "no medical treatment of any kind was provided or offered."
Volpe's "release plan" proposed living with his wife and step-son on Staten Island while working at a home decorating store. He also alleged he had "numerous neighbors and church members who extended support for 21 years."
Volpe attached a handwritten letter to his legal petition.
Letter of Justin Volpe in support of his request for compassionate release in 2020. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas via Federal Court records.
"In 1997, I committed a serious wrong and crime," Volpe's letter began. "I take full responsibility and live with the pain it has caused the victim, his family, and others."
"I do not seek to evade just punishment for my crime," Volpe argued. "After 21 plus years in prison, it is my family who is being punished more."
Judge Frederick Block was unpersuaded. The "grave nature and circumstances” of his crimes precluded compassionate release.
However, Volpe caught a small break courtesy of Congress and former President Donald J. Trump. Then-Pres. Trump signed the First Step Act into law in 2018. Under the Act, prisoners can earn additional good-time credit, if their crimes aren’t one of the specified crimes excluded from the Act.
Volpe’s case qualified under the First Step Act , federal court records show.
Before the Act, Volpe earned five years' good time credits and was scheduled to be released in 2025. With the additional good-time credit he became entitled to under the Act, Volpe is now scheduled to be released Jan. 10, 2024, the Bureau of Prisons says.
Louima spent more than two months in the hospital recovering from a perforated bowel and bladder. There were serious complications. He could’ve died. Louima settled a civil lawsuit against the City and the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York for $8.75 million in 2001. He continues to suffer, federal prosecutors said in 2021 when they opposed Volpe's request for early release.
While federal prosecutors opposed Volpe's early release, Louima himself did not.
“It’s so many years after the crime,” Louima told the Daily News. “Twenty-one years is not 21 days. I think at least he’s spent enough time thinking about his actions.”
Efforts to reach Louima were not successful, but his long-time attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, told The Free Lance:
"While I believe Volpe should've served the full sentence, let the amount of time he served in jail send a message to police officers all over the country that if they do what Volpe did they'll go to jail for a very, very long time."
Photo Credit: Abner Louima via C-SPAN.
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