2 N.Y. Officers Indicted in Beating Case
Two plainclothes police officers were indicted Monday on federal charges of lying to authorities investigating the torture of a Haitian immigrant in a police station bathroom.
Rolando Aleman, 28, and Francisco Rosario, 34, were decorated members of the roving Street Crime Unit who were booking a gun suspect at the precinct at the time of the assault on Abner Louima on Aug. 9, 1997.
During questioning, they “repeatedly lied and misled the federal government about what they saw in the station house that morning,” said prosecutor Alan Vingrad.
The indictments came two weeks after a jury convicted a patrolman, Charles Schwarz, of holding down Louima while another officer, Justin Volpe--who pleaded guilty--sodomized the prisoner with a broken broomstick.
The FBI arrested the two officers late last year, but the charges were quietly dropped because they were not indicted within the required 30 days.
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