Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 Source: New York Times (NY) Page: A21 of the New York edition Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Kareem Fahim Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Michael+Mineo Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) TRIAL OF THREE OFFICERS LOOKS AT INTERNAL INQUIRY The focus of the police brutality trial unfolding in a Brooklyn courtroom shifted Thursday from the disputed events of Oct. 15, 2008, when prosecutors say that a 24-year-old body piercer was abused by an officer in a subway station, to aspects of the investigation that followed. Sgt. Steven Alfano, who led the Internal Affairs Bureau inquiry into claims by the body piercer, Michael Mineo, that Officer Richard Kern repeatedly rammed a retractable baton between his buttocks, testified under cross-examination that an assistant district attorney, Charles Guria, told Internal Affairs investigators not to deliver Mr. Mineo's medical records to one of the Police Department's medical experts. He also said the Brooklyn district attorney's office told his investigators not to record an interview with a 12-year-old witness, James Avery Dallas. The testimony, on the fifth day of the trial in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, seemed to suggest turf skirmishes between Police Department investigators and prosecutors in the weeks after the allegation of abuse, a period marked by rapidly shifting public statements about the seriousness of Mr. Mineo's claim. The Police Department, which had faced criticism for allowing officers under investigation in the matter to continue their routine patrol functions for 19 days after the encounter, later said that the Internal Affairs Bureau had pursued the allegations aggressively, even after civilian witnesses said they saw no signs of abuse. In addition to Officer Kern, who faces 25 years in prison if convicted of sexual abuse, two officers, Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales, are charged with covering it up. Stuart London, a defense lawyer, said the cross-examination was intended to question "the integrity of the investigation." After Sergeant Alfano's cross-examination, a prosecutor, Jeffrey Ferguson, tried to clarify his comments, suggesting that Internal Affairs had its own procedures for analyzing medical records and that it was not up to the prosecutors whether or not to tape the interview with the boy. Mr. Ferguson asked Sergeant Alfano if he knew whether James's father had allowed his son to be taped. "I don't recall," came the reply. Sergeant Alfano testified that he belongs to Group 54, a unit in the Internal Affairs Bureau that investigates use-of-force complaints. He said that as the investigation got under way, he and his team looked at roll-call logs to figure out who had been in the vicinity of the Prospect Park subway station, where the episode happened, that day. Officers Kern and Morales drove an unmarked Chevrolet Impala; Officers Cruz and Noel Jugraj, who has not been charged, drove a marked patrol car. A transit officer, Kevin Maloney, "was on the Q line in the area," the sergeant said. (Prosecutors say that Officer Maloney, who is expected to testify Monday, will corroborate Mr. Mineo's story.) Sergeant Alfano testified that his investigators confirmed that someone inside the Impala using Officer Morales's log-in conducted a warrant check of Mr. Mineo. Prosecutors contend that the fact that Mr. Mineo was released with a summons, even though he had several outstanding warrants, is evidence that the police wanted to hush up the episode. In the early days of the investigation, law enforcement officials said there was no sign of blood in one of the patrol cars, which appeared not to have been washed. On Thursday, Sgt. Nelson Villafane, who participated in the Internal Affairs investigation, said his efforts did not establish that the car had not been cleaned -- only that the officers did not use an official Police Department voucher to get it cleaned. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake