Gay Today: World

New York: Broomstick Rapist Cop
Gets 30 Years

Compiled by GayToday

New York, New York—Police patrolman Justin Volpe, 27, was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment Monday for the brutal 1997 broomstick rape of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.

Volpe, who is white, assaulted the black man in the bathroom of Brooklyn's 70th Precinct, causing severe internal injuries to Louima and requiring that he spend two-and-a-half months in the hospital. The incident, described by prosecutors as one of the worst acts of police brutality in New York City history, strained relations between the city's minority communities and police.

Addressing U.S. District Judge Eugene Nickerson, Volpe, who is the son of a retired detective admitted:

``I hurt many people. I was and still am ashamed. ... I am extremely sorry…I must and I will pay for my crime."

Volpe's lawyer had first argued that Louima's injuries were caused by gay sex. Prior to sentencing, prosecutors asked that Volpe be incarcerated without hope of parole, pointing to the lies he'd told to cover his crime. Victim Louima did not demand a specific legal revenge to compensate for his sufferings, however ``I'm sure the court will make a wise and fair decision,'' he said.

Prosecutor Alan Vinegard critiqued Volpe's twisted sense of pride, telling how he'd bragged to fellow officers about the treatment he'd meted out, brandishing a stick covered with Louima's feces, actually enthusiastic about his "animalistic brutalization of another human being."

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Vinegard also accused the disgraced patrolman of a "cowardly, shameful and humiliating fraud (he'd) tried to perpetrate on the court, fellow officers of the city police department and the city of New York."