Results tagged “justinvolpe”

So how many years should a police officer spend in jail for sodomizing a handcuffed suspect with a broomstick? Justin Volpe, the cop who was convicted of torturing Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in a Brooklyn precinct in 1997 and who has been behind bars in a federal prison for nearly 12 years without any chance of parole, is petitioning the Justice Department for a reduced sentence. He's currently sentenced to 30 years, but letters from family, friends, and a priest pleading for leniency have been sent with his petition. (In 2004, GQ tagged along with Volpe's father, a retired NYPD cop, during depressing visits with his son.)

REV. SHARPTON TO APPRAISE RUDI GIULIANI AT TENTH ANNIVERSARY RALLY & DISCUSS THE STATE OF POLICE BRUTALITY TODAY IN LIGHT OF GIULIANI'S FRONTRUNNER STATUS ON THE REPUBLICAN TICKET BY ANALYZING WHAT THE NATION MIGHT FACE IF GIULIANI IS ELECTED PRESIDENT AND OVER THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENTOther attendees include Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, who survived being shot by police officers last fall (their friend Sean Bell did not survive) .

The Post visited with Abner Louima, one of the city's most famous symbols of police brutality, ten years after the infamous incident at Brooklyn 70th Precinct. Louima had been arrested on August 9, 1997, after a scuffle outside a Brooklyn club. He claimed he was beaten by police officers on the way to the precinct, and later at the precinct, he was further beaten and sodomized with a toilet plunger while handcuffed. Louima had a perforated colon and damaged bladder, and the plunger was also shoved into his mouth, damaging his teeth.

Charles Schwarz, the former NYPD officer who was convicted of lying about his role in the 1997 police torture of Abner Louima, has been released from prison to a halfway house. Schwarz had been serving a five-year prison sentence in a federal minimum security prison in Minnesota. The halfway house is in an unnamed upstate location after Schwarz requested that he not be moved to a house in Bedford-Stuyvesant because of his notoriety.

Last week, retired NYPD detective Robert Volpe died at age 63 in Staten Island. He was not any ordinary detective: Volpe specialized in art thefts and frauds, tracking down paintings by Matisse and Raphael, Greek sculptures, and Tiffany glass, all while continuing to paint, teach and lecture about art. The NY Times had a vivid obituary of Volpe's life - it sounds just like a movie:

Mr. Volpe essentially created his detective’s job after computer analyses pinpointed art theft as a growing problem. Asked to make a survey, he came back with actual arrests instead of a report — underlining the need for a special effort.

Continue reading "City's One and Only Art Cop, Robert Volpe, Dies"

Wow, we do not want to get on the bad side of Brooklyn Judge Reena Raggi! Just look what happened to disgraced ex-cop Charles Schwarz when he went before Raggi yesterday to ask for a 13-month leniency in his five-year prison sentence. Then again, his sentence is for perjuring himself during the Abner Louima trial, but still. Schwarz admits to lying concerning his role in getting Louima into the bathroom of Brooklyn's 70th Precinct station house on August 9, 1997 where he was viciously sexually assaulted by at least former officer Justin Volpe, who is serving a 30 year sentence for the attack. Schwarz was jailed on the perjury rap after a federal jury was unable to decide if holding the Louima down constituted participating in the attack.