Pubdate: Tue, 2 Feb 2010
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A1, Front Page, 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

OFFICER'S TESTIMONY SUPPORTS ABUSE ACCUSATION

At first, Officer Kevin Maloney kept it all to himself.

During an arrest in a Brooklyn subway station on Oct. 15, 2008, he 
watched a fellow officer jab a baton between the buttocks of a 
suspect, and he thought he heard the man moan, Officer Maloney 
testified on Monday. He listened as the suspect, a body piercer named 
Michael Mineo who had been seen smoking marijuana outside the 
station, complained that someone had shoved a walkie-talkie inside 
him. Later, he saw blood on Mr. Mineo's hand.

But Officer Maloney did not call an ambulance or tell a supervisor or 
question any of his colleagues about why they released Mr. Mineo -- 
whom they had chased through the streets and forcibly subdued on the 
subway platform -- with a summons for disorderly conduct. The episode 
was only briefly noted in his memo book.

It was days later that Officer Maloney, then a 26-year-old assigned 
to transit duty and still on workplace probation, decided to speak up 
about what he had seen, breaking the wall of silence that has stymied 
investigations into police misconduct.

"I came forward because the investigation was focused on someone 
else," he said in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, "and it shouldn't 
be." The weight of that decision seemed to make his voice crack on the stand.

Officer Maloney is perhaps the most important prosecution witness 
against the three officers on trial, and one by one, he was asked to 
identify them: Richard Kern, charged with aggravated sexual abuse, 
and Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales, who are accused of helping cover up 
Officer Kern's actions.

His testimony, on the trial's seventh day, was critical to the 
prosecution's case because it corroborated crucial aspects of Mr. 
Mineo's account about what happened that day at the Prospect Park 
subway station. During his own time on the stand last week, Mr. Mineo 
was treated harshly by defense lawyers, who called attention to his 
criminal record, his inconsistent statements and even his many tattoos.

When asked why he did not speak out right away, Officer Maloney 
testified that he did not think he had seen any misconduct.

"It did not register with you that Police Officer Kern had done 
anything inappropriate?" asked John D. Patten, Officer Kern's lawyer. 
Officer Maloney said that was correct.

He spent more than two tense hours on the witness stand, looking out 
at the accused officers and, behind them, a row of police union 
delegates. He sipped at water. His gaze swung from the jurors to the 
defendants. He drank more water.

But if nerves made his voice waver, he never stammered, and he seemed 
sure of his short answers: "Yes, sir" or "correct."

Officer Maloney, who is single and lives on Long Island with his 
family, explained that he had been on the force for 22 months before 
he crossed paths with Mr. Mineo. He was still green: Just that 
morning, he had been disciplined for standing on the wrong subway platform.

Before graduating from the Police Academy in 2007, Mr. Maloney had 
worked in sales and as an umpire. Assigned to the Transit Bureau, he 
first roamed Brooklyn, then was given assignments in Coney Island, 
Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant. That October day, he was 
assigned to the B and Q lines. At 1:15 p.m., about two and a half 
hours before the end of his shift, he was standing on the Q line's 
southbound platform at the Prospect Park station when he said he saw 
two officers chasing a man down the stairs.

The man -- Mr. Mineo -- doubled back toward the entrance, and Officer 
Maloney said he bounded up the stairs to cut him off. Another 
officer, Noel Jugraj, got to Mr. Mineo first and wrestled him to the ground.

Face down, surrounded by officers, "Michael Mineo is squirming," 
Officer Maloney said.

He testified that while he knelt on Mr. Mineo's right side, Officer 
Jugraj was in front of him by Mr. Mineo's head and Officer Kern 
straddled the suspect's legs. At that point in his testimony, Officer 
Maloney paused and took a sharp breath.

"I see Richard Kern has a metal retractable baton, known as the Asp, 
out," Officer Maloney said. "I saw Officer Richard Kern have it 
placed on Michael Mineo's buttocks." Officer Maloney demonstrated how 
Officer Kern held the baton, which is about eight inches long and 
partly covered in foam.

Officer Kern pressed the baton to Mr. Mineo's left buttock, Officer 
Maloney said, and moved it "from left to right." Then he applied 
pressure. A prosecutor, Charles Guria, asked how Officer Maloney 
could tell, and he replied that he saw "indentation in Michael 
Mineo's clothing." He was wearing boxers.

A half inch to an inch of the baton disappeared from his sight, he 
said, as it was pressed into "Mineo's butt crack."

After Mr. Mineo was handcuffed and helped upright by the officers, he 
asked, "Why did you stick that walkie-talkie up my ass?" Officer 
Maloney testified. Soon afterward, he said, Officer Kern described 
Mr. Mineo as an "E.D.P.," police shorthand for an emotionally disturbed person.

At that point in the story, Officer Maloney's account diverged from 
that of other witnesses. His testimony may have helped Officer Cruz: 
Office Maloney said he never heard him say "you liked it," as both 
Mr. Mineo and Officer Jugraj have alleged. Mr. Mineo testified that 
Officer Kern repeatedly rammed him with the baton, but under 
cross-examination from Mr. Patten, Officer Maloney said he did not see that.

But Officer Maloney said he did see Mr. Mineo show the officers his 
hands after they placed him in a patrol car. "There is blood on it," 
Officer Maloney said.

Mr. Mineo said he was bleeding. In response, Officer Jugraj closed 
the car door.

When Mr. Mineo was given a summons rather than taken into custody, he 
was surprised, Officer Maloney said.

He did not challenge Officer Kern about what he had done, Officer 
Maloney said, because "I did not know him."

But after hearing about the investigation into Mr. Mineo's 
allegations in news reports, Officer Maloney said he was worried that 
Mr. Cruz was being wrongly accused of abuse, and he contacted his 
union delegate. He waived his immunity when he testified before a 
grand jury, he said, and has since been transferred.

His lawyer, Paul P. Martin, said his client was "relieved" after 
testifying. Asked whether speaking out had made Officer Maloney's 
life at work more difficult, Mr. Martin said, "His hope and his 
belief is that by coming forward and just testifying there would be 
no reason for anyone to retaliate." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake