Former NY Officer Justin Volpe Released from Prison for Torture of Haitian Migrant Abner Louima

Former New York police officer Justin Volpe, sentenced in 1999 to thirty years in prison and five probation for torturing and sexually abusing the migrant Haitian Abner Louima was released from prison in August 1997, local media reports.

Volpe, who is now 51 years old, He was transferred from the Sandstone prison in Minnesota, where he was serving time, to a community detention center in New York, as a step prior to his release, according to the New York Post.

The former police officer, who has spent 24 years in prison, then admitted his crime, which sparked strong criticism against the racism in the police force and that would end up forcing the resignation of the then Chief of Police of the Big Apple Howard Safir in the year 2000.

usa"],"subseccion":["actualidad"]"/>

“I betrayed the rights of Abner Louima and I betrayed myself. I was sorry and I am still sorry”assured Volpe the day a federal judge read his sentence.

This case sparked the indignation of minorities and especially of the Afro-American community and there were numerous protests for considering it one more example of the brutality with which the New York Police treat members of the most disadvantaged sectors of the population.

Three other officers were convicted of concealment in the same case.

Louima was arrested at dawn on August 9, 1997, when police officers responded to an emergency call for an altercation at the “Rendezvous” club in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

During the police intervention, a cousin of Louima attacked Volpe and hit him in the face, but the agent confused the attacker and arrested the Haitianwho was transferred to a police station.

During the trial, the victim explained that the agents had hit him repeatedly in the patrol car with their radio transmitters during the journey.

Once at the police station, officer Charles Schwartz dragged the detainee to a toilet, where Volpe inserted a toilet plunger stick up his rectum, causing him to die. severe internal injuries.

Some policemen from the same barracks explained during the process how Volpe exhibited the stick, moments after the attack and in the presence of some colleagues and mentioned that even boasted of how he “had to bow down” to a detainee.