Results tagged “michaelmineo”

Days after his arrest while sitting in a playground restricted to adults with children, alleged police-sodomy victim Michael Mineo has blasted NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, accusing him of lying about the collar. Browne had told the press that Mineo was arrested Monday night only after he argued with police who ordered him to leave the playground; the NYPD says that dispute led to cops checking his ID and discovering a warrant for his arrest (related to a community service snafu). But Mineo, who believes cops are harassing him because he's embarrassing the department with his sensational sodomy accusations, tells the Daily News, "They never even asked me to leave, never, it's just not true. They just handcuffed me and put me in the car." His lawyer adds, "We're going to add that incident and that statement to the federal lawsuit. It shows a pattern and practice of harassment." Mineo has filed a $220 million federal suit against the city and three officers are under indictment for the October 2008 incident.

The man whom cops allegedly sodomized in a Brooklyn subway station last October says police are still on his tail. 24-year-old Michael Mineo claims he was innocently relaxing on a bench in a Canarsie playground Monday night when two squad cars arrived and arrested him. "I wasn't doing nothing," Mineo tells the Daily News. "I was just sitting on the park bench talking to a friend. They knew who I was. Of course they did." Mineo is suing the city for $220 million over the alleged sodomy, and three officers are under indictment. But the cops who arrested Mineo Monday are from a different precinct, and police spokesman Paul Brown insists that they only arrested Mineo after he refused to leave and they discovered a warrant for his arrest. Mineo's lawyer Stephen Jackson says the warrant popped because Mineo mixed up the dates on a court appearance last week and failed to certify completion of community service for a prior assault arrest. Jackson agrees that cops are targeting Mineo, telling the News, "Of course they knew who he was. I think two squad cars shows premeditation."

The man who is suing the NYPD for $220 million after alleging that cops at the Prospect Park subway station sodomized him with a police baton has been involved in another altercation that left him with a knife wound in his left arm. 24-year-old tattoo artist Michael Mineo was stabbed in Downtown Brooklyn yesterday after telling the suspect to leave Mineo's girlfriend alone. A witness told the News, "The girl let it be known she was bumped and upset. The guy she was with wanted to be chivalrous and went back and forth with the first guy." 41-year-old ex-con Alejandro George was allegedly drunk when he took out a knife and took a swipe at Mineo's kidney but ended up stabbing him in the left forearm. George was arrested and charged with assault. A lawyer for Mineo suggested that George indicated he knew who Mineo was and "threw a couple of epithets" during the altercation. Mineo was treated and released from Kings County Hospital.

Michael Mineo didn't hold back outside Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday, where he appeared to file a $220 million civil rights lawsuit against the city, the NYPD, and the officer accused of sodomizing him with a retractable baton last October in a Brooklyn subway station. Mineo, a body piercer employed in a tattoo parlor, explained, "It's humiliating. This is considered a rape. I'm a man. I was raped by 4 guys holding me down... putting a baton in my rectum. How am I supposed to feel? There is no forgiveness... There's no way I could've lied and made this up. They've tried to slander my name from the beginning...This is going to be in history. My kids are going to know about this when I have a kid." Mineo says he still experiences "enormous pain," including bowel problems, and is seeing a therapist. And his attorney says $220 million would send a message to the city that "we will no longer tolerate these kinds of egregious incidents of brutality." In response, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association lawyer Stuart London tells the Daily News, "The lawsuit is consistent with my feeling that this was always about money, not a search for the truth."

Whether or not a jury finds NYPD officer Richard Kern guilty of sodomizing tattoo artist Michael Mineo with a baton after he resisted arrest in the Prospect Park subway station in October, the incident could cost tax payers as much as $200 million. Aside from the criminal case being prosecuted against Kern and two other officers, Mineo is pursuing compensation for his injuries in civil court, where his lawyers have filed a notice of claim seeking $200 million in damages from the city, the NYPD, and the officers involved. In an exclusive, NY1 reports that officials are currently evaluating the legal papers... and wondering how they're going to come up with that kind of money.

     

Here's a lede you don't see every day, courtesy the NY Times: "A New York City patrolman used his baton to sodomize a man in a subway station, and two complicit colleagues helped him cover it up, the Brooklyn district attorney charged on Tuesday as he unsealed indictments against three police officers. Using graphic detail, the district attorney described an attack that he said left the man, Michael Mineo, with a gashed anus and blood on his hands." (We'll miss you when you're gone, paper of record.)

Early this morning, the three police officers facing charges related to allegations that they beat and sodomized a man on a subway platform turned themselves in to the Brooklyn DA's office. The three will be arraigned this afternoon. DA Charles Hynes detailed the indictments against the cops: Police Officer Richard Kern was indicted on charges including "aggravated sexual abuse in the first degree, assault in the first degree, and hindering an investigation" while "Andrew Morales and Alex Cruz were also charged with hindering the investigation."

It turns out that DNA evidence helped a grand jury decide to indict three officers accused of beating and sodomizing a Brooklyn man. The Post reports that "tests confirmed" that DNA from accuser Michael Mineo (pictured) "was found on a piece of [Officer Richard] Kern's equipment used in the alleged assault." The indictment will be unsealed tomorrow; it's said that Kern will face charges of aggravated sexual assault, while two other officers will be indicted on lesser charges. Legal experts tell the NY Times the case against the cops "will hinge on two key elements: the extent and nature of the man’s injuries and the intent of the officers who might have caused them." But, referring to how the NYPD handled the accusation (by way of denial), the Reverend Al Sharpton said, "The internal affairs department of the New York City Police Department repeatedly said that ... [Mineo's] charges were groundless. Clearly police cannot police themselves."

Almost two months after a 24-year-old man accused cops of beating him and sodomizing him on a subway platform, a grand jury has indicted three police officers involved. While the indictment has not been officially communicated to lawyers, reports say that Officer Richard Kern was indicted for assault, while two other cops face lesser charges.

Law enforcement sources tell the Post that they expect charges are forthcoming against Officer Richard Kern for his role in the alleged sodomizing of Michael Mineo in the Prospect Park subway station while cops were detaining him last month. While there was no inclination on what will happen to the other three officers under investigation, the paper says that a grand jury indictment of Kern is expected after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile yesterday Kern issued a statement through his lawyer reaffirming that he did "absolutely nothing wrong" and said that any implication that he used excessive force in a 2007 police misconduct investigation he had been cleared of previously were "a complete lie."

Questions are being raised about the allegations made by Michael Mineo after this week's grand jury hearings against the officers he is accusing of sodomizing him while he was being arrested last month. Thursday's testimony from key witness and fellow arresting officer Kevin Maloney pointed the finger at Officer Richard Kern as being the one who used his police baton to sodomize Mineo. But Mineo's testimony accused Officer Alex Cruz of being the one who perpetrated the attack. Mineo's lawyer dismisses the discrepancy since Mineo was on the ground and could not have seen clearly which officer it was. Mineo appeared alongside Reverend Al Sharpton at a National Action Network rally today and thanked Sharpton for visiting him in the hospital last month.

After the first day of grand jury testimony, things do not look good right now for Officer Richard Kern, one of the cops accused of sodomizing Michael Mineo while he was being detained in the Prospect Park subway station last month. Yesterday Officer Kevin Malone, one of the other officers who arrested Mineo on October 15th, testified that he saw Kern place his metal baton against Mineo's left side and run it from left to right across his buttocks as Malone was handcuffing him. That baton is about 2 feet long and 1-1/4 inches in diameter.

The four officers accused of sodomizing a man with a radio antenna or baton after he resisted arrest in a Brooklyn subway station have been stripped of their guns and badges, an NYPD source tells the Post. The officers were ordered to report to the 71st Precinct station house in Brooklyn yesterday to be put on "modified duty." A lawyer for a fifth officer, who is believed to be supporting the victim's explosive allegation, reportedly met with prosecutors yesterday to brief them on his client's account of the incident.

Things are not looking good for the officers who have been accused of sodomizing Michael Mineo in the Prospect Park subway station on October 15th. The NY Post reports that three of the officers accused have had their police lockers removed. The paper says that the NYPD has also taken away the badge and gun Officer Alex Cruz, the cop whose radio and baton are currently being tested for forensic evidence to support Mineo's accusations. As for the anonymous transit cop who is speculated to be in the process of breaking ranks and testifying to the DA against his fellow officers in the case, his lawyer talked to the press yesterday and emphasized that his client was in no way involved with the arrest and assault that allegedly took place.

Sources in the NYPD say that a transit officer who participated in the arrest of Michael Mineo in a Brooklyn subway station earlier this month has broken ranks and will support Mineo's explosive sodomy allegation.

The special investigative grand jury convened in the case of the man who says police sodomized him with a walkie-talkie antenna after he resisted arrest in a Brooklyn subway station will not have an easy time deciding whether to indict the officers because of conflicting witness testimonies. And police sources have contradicted each other when speaking off the record with the Times: One source says the man, Michael Mineo, suffered internal tears just inside his rectum, while another insists the tear was "just above his rectum." Forensic tests on one officer’s equipment found no trace of hair, fibers, bodily tissue, fecal matter or blood. And sources tell the Daily News that one transit cop who came upon the three officers making the arrest approached his commanding officer to make a statement, but a union delegate discouraged him. NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday that "the statements of the complainant and the statements of witnesses are so disparate, and charges here so serious, that I think the investigative grand jury is appropriate in this case.”

The Brooklyn man who says police sodomized him with a radio antenna after he resisted arrest at a subway station is still in the hospital, and subpoenas have been issued to six witnesses who support his claims, including bystanders, friends and a roommate who took him to the hospital after the incident. Two witnesses believed to support the NYPD's sodomy denial—a token clerk and his 12-year-old son—have also been subpoenaed, the Daily News reports. Earlier this week, a special grand jury was convened to look into the explosive allegations.

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes a special grand jury will look at the claims of a Brooklyn man who says five police officers beat and sodomized him with a police radio antennae at a subway station. Hynes said, "On the basis of preliminary conclusions of the early stages of my investigation and a review of the medical evidence concerning the allegations that Michael Mineo was brutally assaulted by four police officers I have ordered a special investigative grand jury to be empaneled."

NY1 had video of Michael Mineo, the 24-year-old man who claims police officers sodomized him with a police radio at a subway station, in his hospital room. Mineo, who was rehospitalized after the alleged October 15 attack; when asked how he felt, Mineo broke down, "How do you think I'm supposed to feel? I was violated."

The 24-year-old who says five police officers sodomized him with a police walkie-talkie last week spoke to the Daily News from his hospital bed. Michael Mineo, who was re-hospitalized, said, "The cops did this to me... I'm in so much pain... I've got pus coming out of me, man. I need help!" And the NY Post has photographs of Mineo being visited by the Reverend Al Sharpton, who called for an investigation into the matter and compared it to the Abner Louima incident.

The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating an explosive allegation made by a Brooklyn man who says five cops beat him and then sodomized him with a walkie-talkie antenna inside the Prospect Park B and Q subway station. One NYPD source tells the Daily News, "This is a bad one. It looks like one of the cops inserted his radio antenna in the victim's rectum."