New Jersey's Louima Case

by Alexander Cockburn

While the recent guilty plea of Justin Volpe in the Abner Louima torture trial in New York generated some headlines, an equally brutal incident in Irvington, N.J., has passed with no attention.

On June 2, 1996, Marie D. Antoine, a Haitian immigrant, was hosting a family birthday party at her apartment in Irvington. Apparently, one of the neighbors called Irvington police to complain about the noise. At 2AM, three Irvington police officers, Phillip Rucker, Alfredo Aleman and Keith Stouch, arrived at the apartment and asked that the music volume be lowered. The stereo was turned off.

But 15 minutes later, the police returned and forced their way inside. The officers entered without a warrant and without the consent of Marie Antoine.

When they came through the door, one of the officers allegedly yelled, "Get the f--- out! The party's over!" The officers searched the apartment, apparently for drugs, with flashlights. Frustrated that the guests did not immediately begin to leave, the police began shoving people out the door. At this point, Marie Antoine's brother, Max, a paralegal who ran an accounting service, told the guests (most of whom were Haitians) that they had the right to be there and that in America the police weren't permitted to "act like the Ton Ton Macoutes." He asked his sister to write down the officers' badge numbers so that he could file an official complaint.

Officer Rucker apparently overheard Max Antoine's comments. According to numerous witnesses at the apartment, Rucker pushed his way through the crowd, knocking to the ground Marie (who was six months pregnant at the time), and grabbed Max Antoine by the neck. Rucker allegedly rammed Antoine's head into the wall. Then, guests say, Antoine was hit in the head by a nightstick swung like a baseball bat by Officer Aleman.

Antoine dropped to the floor in agony. Now, witnesses say, Officer Stouch stomped on him while the other officers flailed away at his head and body with their nightsticks. Several of the guests tried to intervene, but they were shoved aside.

The three cops dragged Max out of the apartment and into the hall, where he was kicked and beaten again. Marie Antoine tried to stop the abuse, asking, "What are you doing to my brother?" According to Marie, Officer Rucker turned to her and said, "I will teach him about American law." Max was then handcuffed and dragged down a flight of stairs, screaming in pain, as his 5-year-old daughter watched in horror.

At the bottom of the stairs, witnesses report, the police picked Antoine off the floor and shoved him through the doorway, pushing his head through the glass pane on the storm door. Max was then placed in the back of the police cruiser and allegedly sprayed in the face with a burning chemical, most likely pepper spray.

Max Antoine's ordeal was far from over. When he reached the police station, he repeatedly asked for medical treatment. Instead, he says, he was led across the lockup area and, still handcuffed, thrown into a cell and beaten and kicked again. Antoine says that when he asked to use the phone to call for an attorney, one of the officers snapped, "Shut up and die like a man."

Despite the fact that he was bleeding profusely, police didn't call the emergency medical team until after Max Antoine had been booked. When the medics arrived, they refused to give him any medical attention. Antoine, whose injuries were numerous, excruciatingly painful and life-threatening, spent two nights in jail before he was released to his family.

Antoine was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was placed in intensive care. His injuries were serious and debilitating. He sustained a fractured left eye socket, a broken jaw, bowel and bladder damage, and spinal injuries. Over the next few months, he underwent 17 surgeries, including lumbar and spinal implants.

The beating left Max Antoine permanently disabled. He is now paralyzed below the waist and blind in his left eye. He has suffered brain damage and has lost sexual function. According to his wife, he is often depressed and suicidal. His medical bills are piling up, and he has no way to pay them off.

Antoine and several of the guests at his sister's party lodged complaints with the Irvington Police Department and the prosecutor's office. Ultimately, a grand jury was convened. But the prosecutors never called any witnesses, and no charges or other disciplinary action was taken against the police officers.

The Antoines also sought the help of the Clinton administration. However, the Justice Department has so far refused to investigate the case.

Antoine, however, has been charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. He is slated to go to trial on July 26.

Antoine and his family have filed a civil suit against the Irvington police and the emergency medical service, saying his civil rights were violated and that he received inadequate medical care.

For their part, the Irvington police claim that it's all Antoine's fault and that he incurred his injuries while being taken from the apartment complex. If we are to believe the cops, Antoine -- handcuffed at the time -- suddenly broke free and threw himself through a glass storm door and then refused medical treatment for two days.

What happened to Antoine is even worse that the assault on Abner Louima, yet the indifference of the Justice Department and of the New Jersey police to this outrage has been total.