Pubdate: Thu, 18 Feb 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

JURORS BEGIN DELIBERATIONS IN POLICE SEXUAL ABUSE CASE

The prosecutor grabbed a baton, the symbol of the police brutality
case that has unfolded over the past month in State Supreme Court in
Brooklyn, to show how quickly Michael Mineo could have been sodomized,
as he said he was in the Prospect Park subway station on Oct. 15, 2008.

Four times, the prosecutor, Charles Guria, jabbed the baton into a
folding table in front of the jury box, and for a few seconds the
sound of steel hitting the wood filled the courtroom. "It doesn't take
very long," Mr. Guria said, responding to a defense lawyer's
suggestion that Mr. Mineo's arrest, for smoking marijuana outside the
station, happened too quickly for the abuse to have occurred.

The stark demonstration was the most dramatic moment in the
prosecution's closing argument on Wednesday. And before the day was
over, jurors had begun deliberating the fates of Officer Richard Kern,
who is charged with sexual abuse and assault, and Officers Alex Cruz
and Andrew Morales, who are accused of trying to help him hush it up.

Mr. Guria's 80-minute summation was a point-by-point rebuttal of the
various arguments put forth by defense lawyers over the last week and
a half. He also worked to shore up the credibility of Mr. Mineo, the
body piercer whose troubled past provided an opening for defense
lawyers and a headache for the prosecution.

The most enduring attacks on Mr. Mineo stemmed from the
multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit he filed against the city in
May. The defense said he only wanted a payday.

Mr. Guria told jurors to focus on what happened at the subway
station.

"Before there were lawsuits, Michael Mineo was showing blood on his
hands," Mr. Guria said. "Before there were lawsuits, these defendants
were suspects in the case."

He showed a video of Mr. Mineo after the arrest, walking down a street
and leaning on a friend for support. At a hospital that day, Mr. Guria
said, doctors saw tears in Mr. Mineo's anus and rectum, and officers
from the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau started
investigating.

Mr. Guria's closing followed that of the defense lawyer Richard H. B.
Murray, who represents Officer Morales. During nearly three and a half
hours of arguments over two days -- which led Justice Alan D. Marrus
to tell him that he was rambling at one point -- Mr. Murray said
allegations of a police cover-up were "absurd."

Officer Morales, who never entered the subway station, is accused of
helping Officer Kern try to stop Mr. Mineo from reporting the abuse.
Police Department records show that Officer Morales ran a computer
check on Mr. Mineo that turned up an open warrant. Prosecutors said he
then did nothing as Officer Kern handed Mr. Mineo a summons, rather
than taking him into custody, and warned him not to go to a hospital
or police station.

Officer Morales testified that he did not see the warrant. "Is this a
cover-up in any fashion?" Mr. Murray asked in his closing on Tuesday.
"You'd have to think they were incredibly stupid to do something like
this. It didn't happen."

During his argument, Mr. Guria had singled out Officer Morales's
behavior, especially the notion that he did not act after Officer Kern
warned Mr. Mineo. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure
out something has gone very wrong," Mr. Guria said. He added that
Officer Morales was "as guilty as the person who said it."

Mr. Guria spent much less time on Officer Cruz, who is accused of
watching the abuse and taunting Mr. Mineo by saying, "You liked it."
Though Mr. Guria noted that another officer, Noel Jugraj, said he
heard the taunt, he also acknowledged that Officer Jugraj's testimony
had been a "mixed bag."

Mr. Guria also talked about the hole in Mr. Mineo's boxer shorts,
which has been a point of much debate. Defense lawyers presented two
witnesses who said the baton could not have cut the square hole that
Mr. Mineo showed to investigators. When Mr. Guria tried to explain how
it could have happened, friends of the officers loudly cleared their
throats.

Jurors will have to sift through the sometimes conflicting testimony
of four police officers: Mr. Jugraj; Mr. Kern and Mr. Morales, who
took the stand in their own defense; and Kevin Maloney, a transit
officer, who testified that he saw Officer Kern jab his baton between
Mr. Mineo's buttocks.

Officer Maloney said he came forward because he thought Officer Cruz
was being wrongly accused of something he saw Officer Kern do. "He
doesn't know either one of them from Adam," Mr. Guria said. "He comes
forward and risks his career and his standing in the Police
Department. Why would he do that if he wasn't sure what he saw?"
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