2 N.Y. Officers Charged With Assault : Youth Says Police Tortured Him With Stun Gun

Two police officers charged with burning a young narcotics suspect 43 times with an electric stun gun ignored his pleas for mercy and threatened to “do it all night” unless he confessed, the teen-ager says.

“I was in pain. I was pleading with them to please stop,” said Mark Davidson, 18, a high school senior with no prior record who was arrested for allegedly selling $10 worth of marijuana.

“The pain was so bad. They said they would do it all night,” Davidson said.

‘Medieval Torture’

Sgt. Richard A. Pike, 50, and Officer Jeffrey W. Gilbert, 33, were arrested Monday for what Queens Dist. Atty. John Santucci called the “medieval torture” of Davidson. They were arraigned today on assault charges and released on their own recognizance.

Davidson’s lawyer, Marvyn Kornberg, said the officers used the stun gun to extract a false confession that Davidson sold an undercover agent two $5 bags of marijuana on a street.

Davidson said he gave the confession because the officers administered 43 shocks to his stomach, back and buttocks during 20 minutes with the gun “and they threatened to do it to my groin.”

Both Davidson’s doctors and a city medical examiner said the burns are consistent with electrical burns.

According to Davidson, no other officers in the station house investigated his screams. A search of the station house failed to turn up the device allegedly used on Davidson.

Acting Police Commissioner Patrick J. Murphy suspended both officers without pay. They face dismissal if convicted, he said.