The Abner Louima Case
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NEW YORK (Court TV) — Under an agressive cross-examination Monday, Haitian immigrant Abner Louima admitted that he had changed his account of the police brutality inflicted on him in a station house bathroom almost two years ago.

But he told the court that those inconsistencies stemmed from the medication he was taking after the attack, which put him in the hospital with an injured bladder and colon.

"I was on medication," Abner Louima told a packed Brooklyn federal courtroom. "And my memory wasn't clear like it is now. I'm more peaceful now. I've had more time to think."

At the time, doctors didn't know if Louima would be incontinent for the rest of his life.

Last week, Louima testified that police officer Justin Volpe sodomized him with a broken broom handle while Officer Charles Schwarz held him down in the early morning hours of August 9, 1997.

In the hospital just after the alleged assault, Louima said only one officer had attacked him in the bathroom.

In court on Monday, he was unable to identify Schwarz as the driver of the patrol car in which he was placed after his arrest, saying that the driver and the passenger, Officer Thomas Wiese, looked similar.

Louima has also accused Volpe and Schwarz, along with Wiese and Thomas Bruder, Volpe's partner that night, of beating him on two separate occasions in the police cruiser on the way to the 70th Precinct station house.

The four officers' patrol supervisor, Sgt. Michael Bellomo, is on trial as well, charged with covering up one of those assaults.

Louima will remain on the stand Tuesday as defense attorneys continue their cross-examination. The assistant U.S. attorneys leading the prosecution will then have an opportunity to question Louima again.

During last Thursday's direct examination, Louima identified Volpe as the officer who the him on the head with a police radio. Yet before a grand jury, he had said he was unable to identify that attacker.

He said his testimony was more accurate now because he has "had more time to think."

On Monday, pressed by defense attorney Marvyn Kornberg, Louima acknowledged that he had deliberately lied to the grand jury when he said an officer told him "It's Giuliani time," just two months before Mayor Rudolph Giuliani faced re-election.

That alleged comment implied that the former prosecutor known for his insistence on law and order had given police a green light to brutalize citizens.

Yet as prosecutor Kenneth Thompson pre-emptively warned the jury in his opening statement, Louima made up that infamous remark.

"You lied under oath to the grand jury, didn't you?" Kornberg demanded."

"Yes," Louima replied quietly, retaining his composure despite Kornberg's repeated attacks.

Louima, 32, was arrested during a confrontation with police as the officers tried to disperse a rowdy crowd of hundreds leaving a Haitian nightclub at about 4 a.m. on August 9.

About three hours later, he was rushed to Coney Island Hospital with severe internal injuries that he said stemmed from the bathroom attack.

Volpe's defense lawyer, Marvyn Kornberg, claims that Louima was injured in a voluntary homosexual act. Schwarz's lawyer, Stephen Worth, insists that his client was never in the bathroom.

Last week, several people testified that Louima had danced with numerous women and did not seem to be injured when they saw him, prior to his arrest.

Charges against Louima were dropped within days.

Volpe and Bellomo are also accused of violating the civil rights of another Haitian immigrant, Patrick Antoine, that same night. Antoine claims Volpe beat him and that Bellomo covered up the assault and conspired to falsely arrest Antoine.

Charges against Antoine have also been dropped. Both men have filed lawsuits against the police department and the city.

Bruder's lawyer, Stuart London, is scheduled to cross-examine Louima next. Bruder is accused of helping to beat Louima just once during one of the patrol car stops.

Bruder also apparently went into the cell where Louima had been left after the bathroom attack and removed Louima's handcuffs.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Eugene Nickerson will rule on the prosecution's request that he issue a gag order to stop defense attorneys from talking to the press.

On Monday, he rejected a motion by the attorneys arguing Louima's civil suit to keep Louima's conversation with a psychiatrist out of evidence.

Louima is represented in his civil lawsuit by Peter Neufeld, Johnnie Cochran, and Barry Scheck, the "Dream Team" lawyers who won O.J. Simpson's acquittal.

Court TV's Catherine Heins and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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