Five New York cops investigated on sodomy charge

PROSECUTORS are investigating allegations that five New York City police officers attacked a tattoo parlour worker and sodomised him with a walkie-talkie in a subway station.

The 24-year-old man says the officers then wrote him a disorderly conduct ticket and abandoned him as he was writhing in pain.

The police department disputes the allegations and strongly denies the man was sodomised.

“Police officers grappled with an individual who they observed smoking marijuana after he had fled and resisted being handcuffed. His assertion he was sodomised is not supported by independent civilian witnesses,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

The case is being investigated by the police department and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.

The accusations brought back memories of the 1997 assault of Abner Louima, who was beaten and sodomised with a broomstick in a police precinct in one of the most notorious cases of brutality in NYPD history.

In the latest case, lawyers for the accuser came forward on Thursday evening, and a hospital confirmed he was admitted on the day of the alleged attack and spent four days there.

Lawyers say five police officers approached Michael Mineo on October 15 around 12.30pm because they believed he was smoking marijuana near a subway stop in Brooklyn.

When the tattoo parlour employee entered the station, he claims officers jumped him from behind, handcuffed him and wrestled him to the ground.

Mineo told his lawyers that he felt a foot on his neck as the officers beat him, then yanked down his pants and sodomised him with the walkie-talkie. The lawyers say the officers took the bleeding Mineo into a police car, wrote him a disorderly conduct ticket and left him at the station.