The Louima convictions have been overturned by a Federal Appeals Court!!  Finally Chuck Schwartz, an INNOCENT man who has been sitting in jail in SOLITARY CONFINMENT (due to his being an LEO) for almost 3 years now will be set free shortly.

That nasty old geezer Judge Nickerson finally kicked the bucket and now maybe Chuck can get a fair shake and prove himself innocent.  God Bless You Charles Schwartz and hope to see you soon!!

Steven

A little history please...

Is that the incident in which the NYPD cops allegedly inserted a toilet plunger into a prisoners rectum?

Yes thats the case.  The savage that was responsible (PO Volpe) is behind bars for a long time (30 years I believe).  He confessed that he was the guilty one, with the help of another officer (named Thomas Weise). This sick old demented Judge Nickerson who is known for his outrageous rulings(ie: falling asleep in court, addressing the jury box whilst the jurors are not even in the courtroom, he's just way too old and senile) anyway, this judge ruled that part of Volpes testimony was withheld from the Jury, and the jury convicted Charles Schwartz, even though in his confession Volpe named Weise as his accomplice.

Scwartz has spent the last 3 years in solitary confinement because of a bad ruling by Judge Nickerson.  Even through the appeals, with new witnesses, the old bat refused to admit he made a mistake.  Now that Nickerson is dead, maybe Scwartz can get his good name cleared.

Louima was unable to identify Schwartz in a photo lineup at the hospital, or in the courtroom as one of the cops involved in beating and torturing him.

Schwartz's partner, Wiese, stepped forward and confessed to being the second man involved, and Volpe admitted to that being the case, but neither Wiese nor Volpe were called as defense witnesses in Schwartz's case.

Post from Jarhead_22 -

Sounds like there may have been a defense lawyer asleep in that Judge's Courtroom, as well!

Eric The(Hey,ItHappens!)Hun[>]:)]

According to the LA Times report, his lawyer may have had a conflict of interest, as he was also the PBA lawyer.  The concern seems to be that he may not have defended Schwartz vigorously enough as it may have led to a greater cash settlement in the suit against the PD or the PBA (not sure which...).

This guy deserves a new trial...

I thought I heard on the news last night was one of the reasons for the overturn was "biased jury". You know, the jury was "diverse", the defendent was (gasp) WHITE!

Try reading the story:

[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000015528mar01.story[/url]

So two of them did it and one got railroaded with them. Nothing new I suppose. In the Malice Green murder trial here in Detroit both cops were charged with the same crime in striking the guy, when only one did and admitted it! The other never touched him. That's why that trial had to redone. You hold people responsible for what [b]they do[/b].

Crazy justice that doesn't seem to differentiate anymore. I thought that that was what made our system great (evolving from English common law) compared to much of the rest of the world (without 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree,etc) where they'd lop your head off for some minor infraction...

AMEN !

I'm so confused!

The police officers involved in Rodney King's arrest are in jail because of a civil court (no criminal conviction, but let's follow the money) conviction.

O.J. Simpson plays golf every day even though he was convicted of wrongful death (isn't that at least some kind of a bad thing) in a civil court.

Centauro(where's the common sense)97

[OK, I concede that I don't know exactly what O.J. was convicted of in his civil trial, but HIS victim isn't walking around today.]

It's about time! It's horrible what happen but, it doesn't make things better to send an innocent person to prison to set an example for a whole police dept.. I won't be satisfied until he is actually a free man.

Ohh.....I'am starting to smell fatty Al Sharpton in the air.

Rectum!, it damn near killed um!