HOSTILE GRILLING AND ANGRY WITNESS MARK OFFICERS' TRIAL IN ABUSE CASE

Stuart London, a defense lawyer, wasted little time on pleasantries as
he greeted Michael Mineo on the witness stand just after 10 a.m. Tuesday.

"Good morning, Mr. Mineo, how are you?" Mr. London said. "You didn't
get stoned today before you came to court, did you?"

A prosecutor immediately objected to the question, and Mr. Mineo, who
prosecutors say was sodomized by a police officer in a Brooklyn subway
station, hung his head. The exchange set the tone for a morning of
hostile questions by defense lawyers and increasingly irritated
responses from Mr. Mineo, who was scolded several times by the judge,
Alan D. Marrus, as he volunteered information without being questioned.

The lawyers asked Mr. Mineo, 25, to scream as he said he did that day
in October 2008, and to stand up. They told him to put his hands
behind his back so jurors could see what he would have looked like
while being handcuffed, and made him hold up the underwear he was
wearing that day, with the hole he says was made by a police officer's
baton being rammed between his buttocks.

At different points, Mr. Mineo sighed into a microphone, mumbled
answers and yelled.

"I'm the victim," he shouted at one point. "I'm the one getting
treated like I did this to myself."

The combative exchanges in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn came on the
third day of the trial of three officers accused of misconduct as they
arrested Mr. Mineo, whom they had caught smoking marijuana outside the
Prospect Park subway station. Officer Richard Kern is charged with
sexual assault and faces 25 years in prison if convicted, while two
others, Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales, are accused of trying to cover
up Officer Kern's act.

Prosecutors have said that DNA evidence taken from Officer Kern's
baton matches Mr. Mineo's DNA, and that another officer who was
present during the arrest will corroborate Mr. Mineo's account of abuse.

After Mr. Mineo left the stand on Tuesday, the prosecution presented
witnesses to shore up his account. One, Jamal Abdul Farad, said he
heard Mr. Mineo screaming about his abuse as he was led to a police
car.

Another, Ashley Loney -- a former roommate of Mr. Mineo who worked
with him at Jiggaman Tattoos in Downtown Brooklyn -- testified that
she and some other friends ended up at the subway station after Mr.
Mineo's arrest that day.

She testified that when she saw Mr. Mineo -- pale, disheveled and
avoiding eye contact -- he said: "I've been violated. I want to go
home and take a shower."

Ms. Loney suggested that they go to a hospital. She said Mr. Mineo had
blood on his hands and told her, "I'm leaking." They picked Brookdale
University Hospital, about 15 minutes away, rather than the closer
Kings County Hospital Center because, she said, Mr. Mineo told her he
had been warned by one of the officers not to go to a hospital or a
police station. Ms. Loney said that as they rode in a cab, she gave
Mr. Mineo her iPod to calm him down. "He loves my playlist," she said.

But the main event on Tuesday was the two-and-a-half-hour
cross-examination of Mr. Mineo, during which the three officers sat
passively as their accuser, in his second day on the witness stand,
lost his temper time and again.

Mr. London, who represents Officer Cruz, confronted him with video
taken by a nearby security camera after the arrest, in which Mr. Mineo
can be seen walking on the sidewalk on his own. Mr. London noted that
Mr. Mineo did not seem to be in pain, and that there was no sign of
blood in the video. But later in the video, Mr. Mineo is seen leaning
on a friend for support.

"This is ridiculous," Mr. Mineo said. "This is ridiculous."

Then John D. Patten, who represents Officer Kern, took his turn.
Again, there were no pleasantries: Mr. Patten quickly asked Mr. Mineo
to scream, to show how he had yelled on the day in question.

"I can't re-enact the scream, because I'm not having anything stuck up
my rectum," Mr. Mineo replied. Mr. Patten asked again, and Mr. Mineo
shook his head. "This is your best defense?" Mr. Mineo asked.

Their exchanges got only more heated. Mr. Patten asked why Mr. Mineo,
who has said he was "embarrassed" by the news coverage of his abuse,
had made several visits to the headquarters of the Rev. Al Sharpton to
talk about the case, and had spoken to reporters. Mr. Mineo said he
did not want it "sweeped under the carpet, like everything else the
police do."

Justice Marrus told Mr. Mineo to control himself: "This just prolongs
the process."

Mr. Patten kept at him, provocatively: "He was ramming you, ramming
you, ramming you," he said. "All the way in. Ramming it, ramming it,
ramming it. That's your testimony?"

Then Mr. Patten showed another video, of the moments when Officer Kern
first confronted Mr. Mineo, taken by a security camera outside a
restaurant. In one frame, which showed Offer Kern looking down, Mr.
Patten said the officer was looking at Mr. Mineo's identification, a
health benefit card.

Mr. Mineo has said he was not carrying any identification.

"Where do you see a benefit card?" Mr. Mineo demanded. Justice Marrus
tried to quiet the witness, prompting Mr. Patten to loudly insist that
the judge act.

"Do I need to tell you to contain yourself?" the judge asked Mr.
Patten.

At 11:45, he sent everyone on a "much needed recess."