Abner Louima

Abner Louima (born November 24, 1966 in Thomassin, Haiti) is a Haitian American man who, in 1997, was physically attacked, brutalized, and raped by officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) after he was arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub.

His injuries were so severe that he required three major surgeries.

Officers responsible for the attack were charged and convicted in federal court, and Justin Volpe was sentenced to federal prison to serve a 30-year sentence.

The beating continued later, culminating with Louima being sexually assaulted in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn.

Volpe kicked Louima in the testicles, and while Louima's hands were cuffed behind his back, he first grabbed onto and squeezed his testicles and then forced a broken broomstick up his rectum.

According to trial testimony, Volpe walked through the precinct holding the bloody, excrement-stained instrument in his hand, bragging to a police sergeant that he "took a man down tonight."

Louima's teeth were also badly damaged in the attack when the broom handle was jammed into his mouth.

He testified that a second officer in the bathroom helped Volpe in the assault but could not positively identify him.

The identity of the second attacker became a point of serious contention during the trial and appeals.

Louima also initially claimed that the officers involved in the attack called him a racial slur and shouted, "This is Giuliani-time" during the beating.

Louima later recanted that claim.

The reversal was used by police defense lawyers to cast doubt on the entirety of his testimony.

The day after the incident, police took Louima to the emergency department at Coney Island Hospital.

Escorting officers explained away his serious injuries, saying they were the result of "abnormal homosexual activities."

An Emergency Department (ED) nurse, Magalie Laurent, suspecting that Louima's extreme injuries were not the result of consensual sex, notified Louima's family and the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau of the likelihood that he had been raped and beaten in custody.

Louima suffered severe internal damage to his colon and bladder in the attack, which required three major operations to repair.

He was hospitalized for two months after the incident.

Reports of the incident and the severity of Louima's injuries provoked national outrage.

He immigrated to the United States in 1991, where he married and had one child.

In 1997, he was living in Brooklyn with his family.

He had been trained as an electrical engineer in Haiti, but in New York, Louima was unable to get a position related to his education.

He worked as a security guard in a water and sewage plant in the Flatlands area of Brooklyn.

By 1997, he was a naturalized citizen of the United States.

On the night of August 9, 1997, the police were called and several officers from the 70th Precinct were dispatched to the scene where Abner Louima and other men had been involved in a fight between two women in Club Rendez-Vous, a popular nightclub in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Police, supporters, and various people all became involved in the fight outside the club.

Police officers Justin Volpe, Charles Schwarz, Thomas Bruder, and Thomas Wiese, and others responded to the scene.

In the ongoing altercation, Volpe said that Louima had attacked him.

Louima was charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing government administration, and resisting arrest.

Later, Volpe admitted his accusation about Louima being his assailant was a lie.

On the ride to the station, the arresting officers beat Louima with their fists, nightsticks, and hand-held police radios.

On arriving at the station house, they had Louima strip-searched and put in a holding cell.

On August 29, 1997, an estimated 7,000 demonstrators marched to the New York City Hall and the 70th Precinct station house at 154 Lawrence Avenue where the attack took place.

The march was dubbed "Day of Outrage Against Police Brutality and Harassment."

The case was mentioned in the 1998 Amnesty International report on the United States, among several other cases of police brutality, torture, and abuse.

Amnesty International also uses the incident as a case study on a treatise in the campaign against torture.

Mike McAlary, a New York Daily News journalist, investigated and reported an exposé of the brutalization of Louima by NYPD officers.

He won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary for this reporting.

In 2001, Louima received a US$8.75 million settlement (equivalent to about $M in ) in his civil suit against the city for police brutality, the largest civil settlement at that time for such abuse.

He has set up the Abner Louima Foundation to establish a hospital and community centers in Haiti, Florida, and New York for Haitian residents, immigrants, and others in need.

Abner Louima was born and grew up in Thomassin, a small community in Haiti.