Two policemen assaulted Louima on Aug. 9, 1997, in the bathroom of the police precinct station house where one cop, Justin Volpe, forced a broken broomstick into Louima's rectum while another cop, Charles Schwarz, held him down. Volpe then shoved the stick into the man's mouth.

Louima incurred severe internal injuries including a ruptured bladder and colon. After being tortured he waited more than two hours before an ambulance took him to the Coney Island Hospital for treatment.

The news of the assault sparked a firestorm of outrage and protests by Haitians and other working people in the city.

Some 7,000 people rallied in New York one week after the police violence to demand justice. The demonstrations forced city prosecutors to file criminal charges against the cops involved in the attack on Louima.

U.S. District Judge Eugene Nickerson, who presided over the federal trial of Volpe remarked, "Short of intentional murder, one cannot imagine a more barbaric act...and the deep depravity of this crime...through the use of force."

Volpe was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison while Schwarz was convicted and given 15 years for pinning the man down during the attack and lying about his actions. Four other cops were convicted of covering up for Schwarz or lying about the case.

Initially Volpe pled not guilty in his federal trial, but changed his plea to guilty and confessed to the bestial act when four cops testified they saw him waving a stick around the time of the attack. "I took a man down tonight," he bragged to other cops. At his trial Volpe admitted, "I threatened to kill [Louima] if he told anyone."
 
 
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