A New York City man who says police beat and sodomized him on a subway station platform sued the city, the police department and the accused officers for $220 million on Thursday for civil rights violations.
Three New York City police officers pleaded innocent in December to criminal charges that one of them sodomized Michael Mineo on October 15 with a police baton on a subway platform and two others helped cover up the crime.
"When you distill it, it was a male on male rape," Kevin Mosley, a lawyer for Mineo, said on Thursday.
"The amount of damages, which is the aggregate of the 11 counts, is reflective of the wrong and the suffering that this young man went through and will go through for the rest of his life," he said.
Possible prison sentences
Detective Richard Kern is charged with aggravated sexual assault and other charges and faces up to 25 years in prison. Andrew Morales and Alex Cruz are charged with participating in an attempted cover up, which included writing a summons for the victim. If convicted, each faces up to four years in prison.
According to prosecutors, Kern and Morales observed Mineo, who works at a tattoo parlor, smoking a marijuana cigarette as they sat in an unmarked police car in the early afternoon on October 15 near Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
Cruz and another officer arrived to provide backup and Kern and Cruz followed Mineo into a subway station where Kern anally assaulted Mineo with a retractable baton, prosecutors said.
The criminal case is due to move forward in state court in Brooklyn in June.
Broomstick attack on Haitian immigrant
The incident sparked charges of police brutality and recalls the 1997 case of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was attacked with a broomstick in a Brooklyn police station.
In the Louima case, one New York City police officer was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the attack, and a second officer was given a five-year prison sentence for perjury.
