Judge blocks early Louima lawyers from fee

NEW YORK, July 22 (UPI) -- The original New York lawyers defending Abner Louima, Haitian immigrant abused by police, will get none of his $8.7 million settlement, a judge has ruled.

U.S. Magistrate Cheryl Pollak ruled they withdrew from the case without cause and engaged in gross misconduct by leaking information to the media.

All of the nearly $3 million in attorneys fees will go to Johnnie Cochran, Peter Neufeld, Barry Scheck and Sanford Rubenstein, the New York Post said.

They had argued that lawyer Brian Figeroux and the estate of the late attorney Carl Thomas deserved no money because of their misdeeds.

Figeroux, Thomas and their associate Casilda Roper-Simpson were the first lawyers retained by Louima in 1997 as he lay in a Brooklyn hospital bed after being attacked.

Louima was picked up by New York police and in a police station bathroom was beaten and sodomized with a broomstick. Four officers wee subsequently convicted but two had their convictions overturned.