DEFENSE TRIES TO UNDERCUT PROSECUTION WITNESS AS OFFICERS' BRUTALITY TRIAL WRAPS UP

Lawyers defending three police officers accused in a brutality case
sought on Tuesday to blunt damage done by a fellow officer who had
testified that he saw Officer Richard Kern jab a baton between the
buttocks of Michael Mineo, a 24-year-old body piercer who had been
smoking marijuana outside a Brooklyn subway station.

Mr. Kern's lawyer, John D. Patten, said that prosecutors might as well
have supplied the words used by the key prosecution witness, Officer
Kevin Maloney. "It's not Maloney testifying," Mr. Patten said during
closing arguments in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn as he turned and
pointed at Charles Guria, the lead prosecutor. "It's this gentleman
here testifying."

Another defense lawyer, Stuart London, tried a different tack, saying
Officer Maloney's testimony had actually bolstered the case of his
client, Officer Alex Cruz. Officer Maloney said he did not hear
Officer Cruz taunt Mr. Mineo by saying "you liked it," as Mr. Mineo
and another witness had testified, Mr. London noted. "He gives you
reasonable doubt."

Such assertions went unanswered on Tuesday because the three defense
lawyers, each representing a defendant, did not finish their
statements by late afternoon. The prosecution is scheduled to give its
summation on Wednesday after Richard H. B. Murray, who represents the
third officer, Andrew Morales, completes his closing.

Tuesday was a day of defense lawyers thumping lecterns, wiping brows
and occasionally drawing the ire of the judge. It began with a short
argument over the charges. Officer Kern is accused of sexually abusing
Mr. Mineo on Oct. 15, 2008. Prosecutors contend that Officer Cruz and
Officer Morales helped cover it up, and they can be convicted -- of a
charge of hindering prosecution -- only if Officer Kern is found
guilty of the underlying offense.

After witnesses finished testifying last week, Justice Alan D. Marrus
reduced the 31 charges originally brought by prosecutors to four, in
an effort to simplify things for the jury. But on Tuesday, he restored
a charge of second-degree assault against Officer Kern, who now could
be found guilty even if jurors did not believe that the baton had
pierced Mr. Mineo's rectum, as is required by the aggravated sexual
assault charge. The judge's move drew angry objections from defense
lawyers.

Against that heated backdrop, Mr. Patten made an emotional and at
times combative 90-minute appeal to the jurors. He told of how Mr.
Mineo had stolen credit cards from a friend years earlier, describing
him as "untrustworthy" and "dishonest," and said prosecutors had not
proved their case by, for example, showing Mr. Mineo's DNA was on
Officer Kern's baton.

"There's no match," Mr. Patten said, noting that a DNA expert had
testified that Mr. Mineo was a possible donor. "If there was a match,
there would probably be a plea of guilty here."

And as he and his colleagues have throughout the trial, Mr. Patten
referred to Mr. Mineo's civil suit against the city, which seeks
hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. "They have an expectation
of big bucks," Mr. Patten said. Convicting Officer Kern, he said,
"will go a long way for him and his lawyers to get a civil recovery."

Patrick J. Lynch, the head of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association,
visited the courtroom on Tuesday, and spoke to reporters outside,
calling for an acquittal and describing the charges as "a fiction."
His task was somewhat delicate: Mr. Patten had just said that the
prosecution's "whole case" depended on a fellow officer, Mr. Maloney.

Mr. Patten pointed out that under cross-examination, Officer Maloney
had said that it never "registered" with him that Officer Kern had
done anything improper. Yet Mr. Patten insisted that other parts of
Officer Maloney's testimony were prepared by Mr. Guria, the lead
prosecutor, drawing a reprimand from Justice Marrus, who waited until
the jury was excused before calling the argument "clearly improper."

Mr. Mineo sat in the courtroom during the presentation, playing with
his necklace and showing little expression. But when Mr. Patten
pointed to a photograph that he said showed Officer Kern examining Mr.
Mineo's identification, Mr. Mineo, who had testified that he was not
carrying identification, laughed out loud.

He was gone by the start of the summation by Mr. London, who reminded
the jurors of one of Mr. Mineo's tattoos, which Mr. Mineo had showed
them while on the witness stand. "A chameleon smoking a joint," Mr.
London said. "An animal that changes its appearance, changes its
color, and likes to get high."

Mr. London underlined Mr. Patten's jabs at Mr. Mineo's character, but
otherwise focused on his client, saying there was no "direct evidence"
that Officer Cruz had seen any abuse. He also made a scathing attack
on the doctors at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center,
where Mr. Mineo was first treated, saying that "they don't do their
job."

"I'm asking you to end this nightmare for Alex Cruz now," he said.
"Send him home so he can get back to his job."