Defense Rests in Beating Trial; NYPD Officers Decline to Testify

Defense lawyers for the remaining four New York police officers accused in the beating of a Haitian immigrant rested Tuesday after none of the defendants chose to testify in the racially charged case.

Attorneys for defendants Charles Schwarz, Thomas Bruder, Thomas Wiese and Michael Bellomo renewed motions to have the case thrown out because of insufficient evidence. U.S. District Judge Eugene Nickerson denied the motions.

Closing arguments were expected today.

Schwarz, 33, Wiese, 35, and Bruder, 33, are accused of violating Abner Louima’s civil rights by beating him in a patrol car en route to a station house after a disturbance outside a nightclub in 1997.

Schwarz also faces a more serious charge: that he held down Louima in a station-house bathroom while a former co-defendant, Officer Justin Volpe, sodomized the handcuffed prisoner with a broken broomstick.

Volpe pleaded guilty last week and could be sentenced to life in prison. He also could be fined up to $1.5 million and ordered to make restitution.

Bellomo, 37, the officers’ supervisor, is charged with trying to cover up the attacks. He had been expected to take the witness stand in his own defense, but his lawyer, John Patten, rested after he said Bellomo decided not to testify.

Louima suffered severe internal injuries as a result of the assault. He underwent three operations, has not worked since and has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the city.

The case shocked New Yorkers, sparked protests and aggravated tensions between New York police and minority communities. The accused officers are white and Louima is black.