Feds issue subpoenas in Louima case


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

source: mnovick@laedu.lalc.k12.ca.us

October 23, 1997

Federal Subpoenas Reportedly Issued in Louima Case
By JOSEPH P. FRIED

NEW YORK -- The first federal grand jury subpoenas have apparently been
issued to some of the witnesses in the case of Abner Louima, the Haitian
immigrant who prosecutors say was tortured by police officers at a Brooklyn
station house. 

A lawyer for one witness -- a Coney Island Hospital nurse who made the
first effort to alert the Police Department to the alleged attack -- said
Wednesday that the nurse had received a subpoena to appear before a grand
jury last Friday, but that her appearance was canceled. 

Law enforcement officials say that subpoenas are often sent out to several
witnesses at a time when grand jury testimony is being lined up in a case. 

The issuance of grand jury subpoenas in an investigation does not
necessarily mean that such a panel has already begun hearing testimony from
other witnesses in the inquiry, though that could be the case. 

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have been investigating the Louima case to
determine whether they should take over the prosecution of four police
officers who have already been indicted on state sexual-abuse and assault
charges. 

State prosecutors say that Louima was severely injured Aug. 9 after being
arrested in a scuffle in front of a Brooklyn nightclub. Prosecutors say
that one of the officers rammed a wooden stick into Louima's rectum. 

Investigators in the case said Wednesday that federal officials had not yet
decided to take over the case, although they have said they expect that to
happen. The grand jury subpoenas and the testimony they entail could
indicate that the federal inquiry has advanced closer to a decision, but it
could also mean that certain testimony needed to make the decision would
not be obtainable without compelling it through a subpoena. 

The nurse's lawyer, I. Philip Sipser, said he did not know of a rescheduled
time for his client, Magalie Laurent, to appear before a grand jury. 

William J. Muller, the executive assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, whose
office is conducting the federal investigation, said he would not comment
on any grand jury matters.

[original source of this item was not cited. -- ny transfer]

 
=================================================================
  NY Transfer News Collective   *   A Service of Blythe Systems 
           Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us          
              339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012             
  http://www.blythe.org                  e-mail: nyt@blythe.org 
=================================================================
 
nytrc-10.23.97-10:51:25-265