3 N.Y. Officers Charged in Unprovoked Pistol-Whipping

Just one day after five New York City policemen were arraigned on murder charges involving the fatal beating and choking of an auto-theft suspect in Queens, three more officers were charged Thursday with beating and pistol-whipping three men without provocation in a separate incident last December in mid-town Manhattan.

The seven-count indictment against the three off-duty policemen rested primarily on testimony provided by a fourth officer at the scene who voluntarily cooperated with detectives investigating the incident, officials said.

Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau said the investigation disclosed that two of the three officers were on their way home from a bar after a precinct party on Dec. 22 when they saw a taxi with two men inside. The men were waiting for a friend to come back from a delicatessen near 53rd Street and Broadway.

One of the officers opened the rear door of the cab, began shouting anti-homosexual slurs and then grabbed one of the men by the coat and dragged him out of the cab, Morgenthau said.

A fight erupted, and one of the officers pulled out his pistol, prompting the men to run up Broadway in fear of their lives, the district attorney said. Meanwhile, the cab driver took off.

About a block away, the third officer charged in the incident, who also was off duty and was in a car, spotted the three men running up Broadway. He got out of his car, identified himself to the men as a police officer and then struck one of the men in the face with his pistol, Morgenthau said.

The two other officers joined in the beating, knocking the men to the ground and kicking, punching and pistol-whipping them--all the while warning them not to turn around and look at them if they wanted to stay alive, Morgenthau said.

The three policemen eventually left the scene. Other officers arrived and called an ambulance, which took the three men to Roosevelt Hospital. All three were treated for multiple contusions to the face and head. More than 40 stitches were required to close the gashes in the face and head of one of the victims. Another man was treated for a broken rib.

“I think that the whole department is horrified that this kind of action occurs,” said New York City Police Chief Robert Johnson, who praised the policeman who came forward to testify against his fellow officers.

The three officers were arrested Thursday and released on their own recognizance. They have been suspended from the force without pay and face departmental charges. They were identified as Daniel McCormick, 30; Brian Carter, 23, and John Talt, 31. McCormick joined the department in 1982, Carter in 1988 and Talt in 1983.

They were each charged with two counts of second-degree assault, one count of third-degree assault and four counts of official misconduct. The top count, second-degree assault, carries a maximum penalty of 2 1/3 to 7 years imprisonment.

Their indictment followed by a day the arraignment of five other officers, who pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges in the asphyxiation death of a young auto-theft suspect who had been in police custody in the Queens section of New York.

Mayor David N. Dinkins said that he was “deeply concerned and troubled” by the allegations and, referring to the beating of motorist Rodney G. King in Los Angeles, said that police brutality is “something our Administration simply will not tolerate.”

Authorities were investigating whether the Police Department attempted to cover up the role played by five officers in the asphyxiation death of Frederico Pereira, 21, who died Feb. 5 after struggling with officers who moved to arrest him as he slept on the front seat of a stolen automobile.

The district attorney said that one of the officers had choked Pereira from behind as he lay face down and handcuffed. A large group of off-duty officers cheered the five defendants when they entered the courthouse Wednesday.