4TH OFFICER PARTLY BACKS EACH SIDE IN TRIAL OF 3 OVER ARREST IN SUBWAY

A police officer who helped arrest Michael Mineo in a Brooklyn subway
station 15 months ago testified on Wednesday that he did not see any
of his colleagues pull down Mr. Mineo's pants or jab a baton into his
buttocks. But the officer, Noel Jugraj, said he did hear Mr. Mineo
yell, "You all violated me," and heard his partner, Officer Alex Cruz,
respond, "You liked it, you liked it."

Officer Jugraj has not been charged in the case. Officer Cruz is one
of two officers charged with covering up the actions of a third,
Richard Kern, who prosecutors said sodomized Mr. Mineo with his
retractable baton.

The testimony, on the fourth day of the trial in State Supreme Court
in Brooklyn, contributed to the conflicting accounts of what occurred
on Oct. 15, 2008, after Mr. Mineo ran from officers who saw him
smoking marijuana on Flatbush Avenue and was caught in the Prospect
Park station, where he said he was abused.

Officer Jugraj, who has been on the police force for eight years,
testified that he did not see abuse, but also said he was focusing on
Mr. Mineo's face, not his body, for a period of time when it might
have occurred. He said that he did not hear Mr. Mineo shouting about
being abused by a walkie-talkie -- screams that two civilian witnesses
have testified that they had heard -- but that he did see something on
Mr. Mineo's fingers that could have been blood or feces. He said Mr.
Mineo never asked for an ambulance, or a police supervisor.

Officer Jugraj was called to testify by prosecutors, but it was
unclear how much he bolstered their version of events. "We're not
unhappy with what he had to say," John D. Patten, Officer Kern's
defense lawyer, said afterward. Officer Jugraj is named as a defendant
in Mr. Mineo's multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit; Kevin L. Mosley, one
of Mr. Mineo's lawyers in that case, noted that Mr. Jugraj therefore
had to walk a "fine line."

The shifting narratives come as the trial approaches a critical
stretch. In the coming days, prosecutors plan to introduce DNA
evidence that they say links Officer Kern's baton to Mr. Mineo, and to
present a transit officer who is expected to corroborate parts of Mr.
Mineo's story.

Officer Jugraj testified that he had been called to the area, around
Empire Boulevard and Flatbush Avenue, for a report of a stolen
cellphone at a Wendy's restaurant. When he and Officer Cruz arrived,
they saw Officers Kern and Andrew Morales speaking with Mr. Mineo and
a friend.

Mr. Mineo, who testified on Monday that he had been smoking marijuana
and swallowed it when the officers approached him, was begging not to
be arrested, Officer Jugraj said. "I don't want to go jail," the
officer quoted him as saying. "I don't want to be violated." At the
time, Mr. Mineo was on probation from a previous arrest.

The officers did not find any marijuana, but Officer Jugraj said he
told Mr. Mineo he could still go to jail. "After saying that, Mr.
Mineo takes off," the officer testified.

Officers Cruz and Kern chased Mr. Mineo into the station, and Officer
Jugraj followed in his car. Once downstairs, Officer Jugraj said, he
caught Mr. Mineo and tried to bring him to the ground, but the suspect
fought back.

Officer Kern and a transit officer, Kevin Maloney, helped him handcuff
Mr. Mineo, Officer Jugraj said. As Mr. Mineo lay face down in front of
the toll booth, Officer Jugraj stood near his head while Officer Kern
straddled one of his legs.

"He was like, 'Get off me, get off me,' " Officer Jugraj said, and
when they lifted him up, Mr. Mineo screamed that he had been
"violated" and didn't want to go to jail.

He echoed Mr. Mineo's testimony about being taunted by Officer Cruz
while he was handcuffed. "Yeah, you liked it, you liked it," Officer
Jugraj quoted his colleague as saying, though in Mr. Mineo's version
Officer Cruz added a homophobic slur.

There was some debate about whether Mr. Mineo meant he had been
sexually violated or violating his probation. Officer Jugraj said he
thought Mr. Mineo was referring to his parole or probation.

After the confrontation, Mr. Mineo was let go with a summons, which
prosecutors have said indicates an attempt to hide the abuse. Officer
Jugraj testified that he was angry when Officer Kern told him there
would be no felony charges.

"I told them you guys should have collared him," he testified. "You
should have put him through the system."