Former NYPD officer receives $1 million bail in brutality case

Associated Press WriterNEW YORK (AP) -- A twice-convicted ex-patrolman who won his appeal in the Abner Louima torture case was granted $1 million bail Thursday in anticipation of his new trial on civil rights charges.

U.S. District Judge Reena Raggi ruled that Charles Schwarz could see freedom for the first time in nearly three years by posting the bail, which will be secured by the equity in his mother's Staten Island home.

Schwarz could be out by Thursday afternoon once the paperwork was finished. Wearing a suit and looking fit, Schwarz smiled upon entering the courtroom and waved to his wife.

Last week, a federal appeals court ordered a new trial for the white former officer, setting the stage for a jury to once again hear contradictory accounts of who participated in the torture of the Haitian immigrant in a police station bathroom.

Schwarz, 36, has denied he was in the bathroom when Officer Justin Volpe sodomized Louima with a broken broomstick in 1997. After Volpe pleaded guilty, a jury convicted Schwarz in 1999 of violating Louima's civil rights by holding him down during the assault.

Louima, speaking at a news conference in Miami before the hearing, expressed his displeasure with the appeals court decision that could free Schwarz.

"I had hoped, after all these years, I would be able to go on with my life," Louima said. "Unfortunately, that is not the case. ... I will fully cooperate in any future prosecution ... to demonstrate to the world that our system of justice does work."

Louima, who was severely injured, was a key prosecution witness in the first trial.

Louima attorney Sanford Rubenstein, at the same news conference, said that Schwarz "does not walk out as a free man. He walks out of the courthouse as a defendant ... in one of the most brutal acts of police brutality in the history of this country."

The attack on Louima by white officers sparked street protests and a pending federal inquiry into whether the NYPD's rank-and-file shields abusive officers behind a "blue wall of silence." It also resulted in an $8.7 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by Louima against the city and a police union.

Schwarz won a reprieve when the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found that his lawyer had a conflict of interest and that the jury was tainted by news reports about the case.

The three-judge panel also threw out an obstruction-of-justice conviction of Schwarz and two other officers, Thomas Bruder and Thomas Wiese, who were accused of orchestrating a cover-up.

The appeals court decision followed a persistent "Free Chuck" campaign waged by Schwarz's wife, Andra, and an assortment of public officials, police officers and newspaper columnists. Schwarz was cast as the scapegoat for an overzealous prosecution of the racially charged case.

It remains unclear whether new charges can be filed against Bruder and Wiese. But prosecutors said they were ready to retry Schwarz.

The government's case still hinges on the testimony of Louima and another officer who worked with Schwarz, Eric Turetzky.

Louima has testified that the second assailant was the same officer who drove him to the station house. Records show the driver was Schwarz. Turetzky has backed Louima's account by testifying that he saw Schwarz leading a handcuffed Louima to the bathroom.

Schwarz's new lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, has said he would challenge the identification by calling Volpe to the stand. Volpe, who is serving a 30-year sentence, has said that Wiese -- not Schwarz -- entered the bathroom, but did not participate in the assault.

Wiese confirmed that version of events in a statement made to state prosecutors shortly after the assault, Fischetti said. The statement, which was excluded from the first trial, should now be allowed as evidence because Wiese is no longer a defendant, the lawyer said.