Louima

August 16, 1999
Web posted at: 10:46 p.m. EDT (0246 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Disgraced former New York Police Officer Justin Volpe, facing up to life in prison for sodomizing Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in a police precinct two years ago, has told federal authorities that the wrong man was convicted of being his accomplice in the assault.

Volpe's attorney, Marvyn Kornberg, told CNN on Monday that his client gave a three-page statement to federal authorities three weeks ago stating it was Officer Thomas Wiese -- not Charles Schwarz -- who brought Louima to a bathroom in Brooklyn's 70th precinct and stood watching as Volpe sodomized him with a wooden stick.

Schwarz was convicted in June of holding Louima down during the attack and could receive a life sentence.

His lawyer at the time, Steven Worth, said repeatedly at the trial that his client was not in the bathroom, but he never called Volpe as a witness.

A source close to the case told CNN that Schwarz would soon dismiss Worth and hire a new attorney.

Another attorney, Ronald Fischetti, told CNN he has already been hired by Schwarz and that Schwarz's wife would hold a news conference later this week.

Worth was out of the country and did not return calls. Efforts to reach Schwarz's wife were also unsuccessful.

'Tried to right two wrongs'

Wiese was acquitted of charges of violating Louima's civil rights in June. Two other officers, Thomas Bruder and Michael Bellomo, also were acquitted in the case.

Kornberg said his client "tried to right two wrongs" when he pleaded guilty to the assault charges in late May.

At that time, Kornberg said, he advised then-U.S. Attorney Zachary Carter, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Vinegrad and Schwarz's attorney of Volpe's account, "but no one wanted to go into it."

Kornberg said he had not provided a copy of Volpe's statement to the U.S. attorney's office. He told CNN he had given it to unnamed "federal authorities," who then passed it on to trial Judge Eugene Nickerson.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Bill Mueller, declined to comment on Volpe's statement.

Excerpts of the alleged statement were first published Monday in the New York Post.

At the trial's end, when similar reports were circulating that Wiese -- not Schwarz -- had been present at the bathroom attack, prosecutors said they did not believe Volpe's story.

Because Nickerson had denied all five defendants' motions for severance, Schwarz's attorney was unable to call Wiese as a witness to defend his client.

Once Volpe pleaded guilty, Worth said he lacked credibility and did not call him to testify on Schwarz's behalf.

Volpe's sentencing is expected in mid-September.

Schwarz, along with Bruder and Wiese, will stand trial on an additional charge of obstruction of justice related to the Louima case. After that second trial is concluded, Schwarz will be sentenced on the earlier conviction.

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