TRIAL OF THREE OFFICERS LOOKS AT INTERNAL INQUIRY

The focus of the police brutality trial unfolding in a Brooklyn
courtroom shifted Thursday from the disputed events of Oct. 15, 2008,
when prosecutors say that a 24-year-old body piercer was abused by an
officer in a subway station, to aspects of the investigation that followed.

Sgt. Steven Alfano, who led the Internal Affairs Bureau inquiry into
claims by the body piercer, Michael Mineo, that Officer Richard Kern
repeatedly rammed a retractable baton between his buttocks, testified
under cross-examination that an assistant district attorney, Charles
Guria, told Internal Affairs investigators not to deliver Mr. Mineo's
medical records to one of the Police Department's medical experts. He
also said the Brooklyn district attorney's office told his
investigators not to record an interview with a 12-year-old witness,
James Avery Dallas.

The testimony, on the fifth day of the trial in State Supreme Court in
Brooklyn, seemed to suggest turf skirmishes between Police Department
investigators and prosecutors in the weeks after the allegation of
abuse, a period marked by rapidly shifting public statements about the
seriousness of Mr. Mineo's claim.

The Police Department, which had faced criticism for allowing officers
under investigation in the matter to continue their routine patrol
functions for 19 days after the encounter, later said that the
Internal Affairs Bureau had pursued the allegations aggressively, even
after civilian witnesses said they saw no signs of abuse.

In addition to Officer Kern, who faces 25 years in prison if convicted
of sexual abuse, two officers, Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales, are
charged with covering it up.

Stuart London, a defense lawyer, said the cross-examination was
intended to question "the integrity of the investigation."

After Sergeant Alfano's cross-examination, a prosecutor, Jeffrey
Ferguson, tried to clarify his comments, suggesting that Internal
Affairs had its own procedures for analyzing medical records and that
it was not up to the prosecutors whether or not to tape the interview
with the boy.

Mr. Ferguson asked Sergeant Alfano if he knew whether James's father
had allowed his son to be taped. "I don't recall," came the reply.

Sergeant Alfano testified that he belongs to Group 54, a unit in the
Internal Affairs Bureau that investigates use-of-force complaints. He
said that as the investigation got under way, he and his team looked
at roll-call logs to figure out who had been in the vicinity of the
Prospect Park subway station, where the episode happened, that day.

Officers Kern and Morales drove an unmarked Chevrolet Impala; Officers
Cruz and Noel Jugraj, who has not been charged, drove a marked patrol
car. A transit officer, Kevin Maloney, "was on the Q line in the
area," the sergeant said. (Prosecutors say that Officer Maloney, who
is expected to testify Monday, will corroborate Mr. Mineo's story.)

Sergeant Alfano testified that his investigators confirmed that
someone inside the Impala using Officer Morales's log-in conducted a
warrant check of Mr. Mineo. Prosecutors contend that the fact that Mr.
Mineo was released with a summons, even though he had several
outstanding warrants, is evidence that the police wanted to hush up
the episode.

In the early days of the investigation, law enforcement officials said
there was no sign of blood in one of the patrol cars, which appeared
not to have been washed. On Thursday, Sgt. Nelson Villafane, who
participated in the Internal Affairs investigation, said his efforts
did not establish that the car had not been cleaned -- only that the
officers did not use an official Police Department voucher to get it
cleaned.