Grand jury to get NYC police sodomy case

NEW YORK, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A New York City prosecutor says he has taken claims that police officers sodomized a criminal suspect in a subway to a grand jury.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said the discrepancies between police reports of the Oct. 15 incident and the injuries suffered by Michael Mineo are so large they justify a grand jury investigation, The New York Daily News reported Tuesday.

Mineo, 24, claims a cadre of five police officers chased him into a subway station after seeing him smoke marijuana, held him down and sodomized him with a walkie-talkie antenna. Mineo was hospitalized for four days after the alleged assault, the newspaper said.

Medical reports showed Mineo suffered damage to the exterior of his anus and internal tearing, and witnesses have come forward saying they heard him screaming, saw him being beaten and his buttocks exposed, the New York Post reported.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he welcomed Hynes' efforts to "establish the facts."

The five officers involved in the case have been taken off street patrols and assigned to administrative tasks due to intense media scrutiny, police officials told the Post.