DEFENSE QUESTIONS EVIDENCE IN POLICE TRIAL

Lawyers defending three police officers accused of abusing a suspect
in a Brooklyn subway station or covering it up mounted a wide-ranging
attack Thursday on the case made by prosecutors, suggesting that
forensic evidence may have been faked and that witness testimony did
not back up the charges.

First, they tackled the accusations of a cover-up.

The prosecutors contend that on Oct. 15, 2008, the officers arrested
a body piercer named Michael Mineo for smoking marijuana and then let
him go with a summons, even though they knew he had outstanding
arrest warrants. That light punishment, they contend, was intended to
smother a crime: one of the three officers, Richard Kern, is accused
of sodomizing Mr. Mineo with a baton. (The other two, Alex Cruz and
Andrew Morales, face charges including hindering prosecution.)

But on Thursday, defense lawyers said the officers had been
encouraged by their supervisors not to arrest people for smoking marijuana.

They called Deputy Inspector Peter J. Simonetti, the commanding
officer of the 71st Precinct, in Brooklyn, who testified that the
policy of the precinct was that "marijuana collars" were to be
handled by rookies or officers on patrol.

Officers like Mr. Kern and Mr. Morales, who belonged to an anticrime
unit, were supposed to focus on more serious offenses, like
burglaries, the inspector said. They would not be punished for making
marijuana arrests, he said, but they would have to explain themselves to him.

That testimony could be helpful to Officer Morales, who was not
inside the subway station, but faces charges of falsifying records
and official misconduct in relation to the writing of the summons.
Prosecutors say he also heard Officer Kern threaten Mr. Mineo,
telling him not to visit a hospital or a police station.

The defense lawyers have not yet said whether their clients will
testify. In court, Justice Alan D. Marrus said he expects that
testimony will wrap up next week and that the jury will hear closing
arguments after the Feb. 15 holiday.

Most of the testimony Thursday focused on a small hole in the back of
the boxer shorts Mr. Mineo was wearing the day of the confrontation:
he has said it was caused by Officer Kern's baton, but a forensic
specialist who used to work for the Police Department testified that
the baton could not have made the hole.

The specialist, Nicholas Petraco, who is now a consultant to the
Police Department, said the hole looked as if it had been punched out
by a hollow object, like a metal tube. The edges did not have
evidence of pulling or tearing, and there was no flap left over, "as
you would expect if it was punctured."

A prosecutor, Charles Guria, challenged Mr. Petraco, asking whether
he had taken into account all the possibilities: Couldn't fabric have
been lost during the arrest, or as Mr. Mineo sat in a patrol car or
when he got to the hospital? Mr. Petraco conceded that it could have been.

Jurors also heard testimony from James Dallas, the agent at the
Prospect Park subway station, where Mr. Mineo was arrested. Mr.
Dallas's wife, Andrea, and 13-year-old son, who had been at the
station picking him up that day, testified for the prosecution at the
trial's start.

Mr. Dallas, who stood about 10 feet away as Mr. Mineo lay handcuffed
on the ground, said that he did not see any abuse but that his view
might have been obstructed. A few days later, Mr. Dallas testified,
Mr. Mineo returned to the station and asked whether it had any
security cameras.