NYPD Brutality Testimony Spotlights Code of Silence

In a hushed courtroom, the burly New York police sergeant looked squarely at Officer Justin Volpe and took a deep breath. Then he recalled how the cop had bragged about brutalizing a Haitian immigrant with a broomstick in the bathroom of a Brooklyn police station.

Earlier, a detective told jurors that Volpe, his uniform in disarray, had walked the handcuffed Haitian security guard into the bathroom, wildly waving a broken stick. Then a third policeman testified that he heard the officer boast to his colleagues: “I broke a man down.”

The spectacle of five officers testifying forcefully against fellow cops has been the latest dramatic twist in a trial that is riveting the city with ugly allegations of police brutality. Their testimony in recent days--much of it dominating the local news--has kindled an intense discussion of police whistle-blowing and efforts to reform the NYPD. Indeed, the disturbing details have focused renewed attention on the so-called blue wall of silence, spotlighting slow but steady changes in the highly protective world of police culture, according to a spectrum of authorities.

“I walked away. . . . I didn’t want to be involved at any point,” Sgt. Kenneth Wernick testified Wednesday, recalling his initial reaction when Volpe offered to show him the stick with which he had allegedly sodomized Abner Louima, 32. But Wernick ultimately did get involved, because he said he felt he had an obligation to speak out about the alleged incident, which happened nearly two years ago.

For some observers, such high-profile testimony heralds a breakthrough in police behavior and dramatic proof that the stubborn code of silence--immortalized in “Serpico,” “Prince of the City” and other movies about police corruption--has been pierced. “All of these officers did the right thing, the courageous thing in deciding to come forward, and this kind of testimony happens much more often than people have been led to believe,” New York Police Commissioner Howard Safir said in an interview.

Others questioned whether the police testimony in the Louima case is really a significant turning point; they see it as an aberration at best, most likely the result of intense top-level pressure to crack open a racially explosive case that greatly embarrassed city officials when it became public. The defendants’ attorneys, meanwhile, challenged the fundamental truth of the officers’ testimony.

‘It Was My Duty’ to Come Forward

Safir and other police brass applauded Det. Eric Turetzky last week, when he was the first officer to testify that Volpe had a stick in his hand. But Attorney Stephen Worth, who represents one of the four other officers on trial, tried to rattle the witness with a sarcastic cross-examination:

“Do you consider yourself a hero cop who broke the Blue Wall of silence?” Worth asked.

“No, sir,” Turetzky replied.

“Were you acting out of self-interest?”

“No, sir.”

“Why did you come forward?”

“It was my duty.”

According to federal prosecutors, Volpe and three other officers--Charles Schwarz, Thomas Wiese and Thomas Bruder--viciously beat Louima after arresting him during an August 1997 melee outside a Brooklyn nightclub. Volpe was struck in the face during the fracas, and mistakenly believed Louima was the one who hit him; he brutalized the man in an act of revenge, prosecutors say. A fifth officer, desk Sgt. Michael Bellomo, has been charged with trying to cover up the incident. All of the defendants have denied the accusations.

Louima was hospitalized with severe internal injuries, and is suing the city for $450 million in civil damages. The trial is in its third week.

Attorneys for the five defendants have attacked the credibility of the police officers who testified against them, suggesting they all had blemishes on their records and were coerced by top brass to do so under penalty of punishment. The witnesses denied that, yet other critics--who believe their testimony--have also questioned why they came forward.

“I’ve handled more than 100 investigations of police misconduct over 11 years, and I can only recall one time when an officer came forward to testify against another cop,” said New York attorney Joel Berger, who has worked for the city and now brings cases against the department for private clients.

Louima Is Related to Prominent Minister

Berger pointed to the story of Daisy Boria, an officer who testified against another cop accused of choking a man to death in the Bronx two years ago; she has since filed a lawsuit against the city (with another attorney) alleging that she was forced to quit her job amid heavy abuse from fellow officers.

“The real lesson in the Louima case,” Berger added, “is that an officer like Volpe felt so confident that he would be protected, he openly bragged about what he did to Louima. It shows you that on the precinct level, the story’s the same.”

What made the Louima case different, Berger suggested, is that he happened to be the nephew of a prominent Haitian minister, and there was widespread community outrage at what had happened to him. Moreover, a nurse surreptitiously called the police Internal Affairs Division after Louima was hospitalized in terrible shape. In most brutality cases, Berger explained, the victims are not so prominent, and hospital personnel are reluctant to blow the whistle on officers who frequently bring patients to them.

The five officers testifying in federal court have already given testimony to police Internal Affairs investigators and a federal grand jury. It is not known how prosecutors ultimately elicited their testimony--whether they volunteered information or were pressured to do so. In general, the police wall of silence is maintained when officers offer minimal or no cooperation in such settings.

Has the New York Police Department changed all that much since officers Frank Serpico and David Durk electrified the city with stories of corruption in the 1970s? Although both were hailed in the press, they were forced to leave the department amid hostility from fellow officers and death threats.

Serpico, who has since embraced a variety of causes including Amnesty International, blasted Safir and others for hypocrisy on the issue of whistle-blowing: “These guys say they are so proud of the cops who come forward, calling them heroes, but then they have to put them all under police protection,” said the former officer. “What’s the point of doing that if it’s such an honorable action? And how can they possibly say that things have changed in the New York Police Department?”

Durk, who offers professional advice to whistle-blowers in the NYPD and other organizations, believes plenty of officers want to speak out against wrongdoing, but are often reluctant to do so because higher-ups do not support them. “I think all this stuff about the Blue Wall of silence is absolute nonsense, because right now it’s as porous as you can get. The problem is, good cops have nowhere to go.”

Nonsense, said William J. Bratton, the New York commissioner who immediately preceded Safir. Credited by many with launching the police reforms that slashed New York’s crime rate, Bratton said the department brass have taken a consistently aggressive stance against corruption--and the rank and file know it.

“It used to be that if you did something wrong as a cop, the department to save itself would almost routinely cover your rear-end for you,” he noted. “But I don’t get the sense that most cops still believe that. . . . We took steps to tighten the procedures for reporting corruption inside, and I also believe that you have an obligation now to celebrate whistle-blowers.”

Bratton concedes that the Blue Wall still exists, in police departments as much as in any other profession. But he’s cautiously optimistic: “I wouldn’t say flat out, the department has changed, period, since the time of Serpico. But I think it’s changing, it’s something that’s still in flux.”