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JURY SELECTION BEGINS IN TRIAL OF NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICERS ACCUSED OF TORTURING HAITIAN IMMIGRANT
The trial of four New York City police officers accused of torturing Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, began on March 30 with the beginning of the process of screening for potential jurors in the civil rights case Louima has brought. Defense attorneys sought a change of venue, citing the increased community agitation in the wake of the shooting of Amadou Diallo last February, also by New York City police officers. Their motion was denied by the federal judge presiding over the case, who said that while there has been a good deal of publicity surrounding the two incidents, it cannot be characterized as inflammatory.
Louima’s suit alleges that the four white police officers, after arresting him for participating in a street fight, beat him in the patrol car on the way to the police station, at that the beating continued at the stationhouse. The most shocking allegation made it that one officer held Louima down while another rammed a wooden stick into his rectum, causing severe internal injuries from which Louima nearly died.
The four officers involved in the shooting of Amadou Diallo have been indicted on charges of second-degree murder. Once before, a police officer was charged with manslaughter in connection with such an incident, but this is the first time an officer has been indicted for murder for a killing committed in the course of duty.