NEW YORK, D.C., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A New York transit police officer testified he saw another officer use his baton to sexually assault a man as officers tried to arrest him.
Officer Kevin Maloney, 27, said he was helping cuff the prisoner, Michael Mineo, as he lay on the floor of a subway station when he saw officer Richard Kern gripping the baton then move it, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
"It was pressed on Michael Mineo's left buttock," Maloney testified Monday. "I saw it move from left to right ... . Yes, there was pressure being applied. It went from left to right, into Michael Mineo's butt crack."
The testimony was the first solid corroboration of Mineo's claims that he was sodomized with an object after being wrestled to the ground following a street chase. Kern, 26, is charged with carrying out that assault. Officer Alex Cruz, 28, and officer Andrew Morales, 27, are accused of covering it up.
Maloney, who was not charged, also reported hearing Mineo question what was happening after which Kern described the suspect as an emotionally disturbed person.
Maloney also testified that Mineo, once in the patrol car, reached his cuffed hands around his waist then showing officers a bloody fingertip.
Defense attorneys accused Maloney of telling prosecutors what they needed to make the case to avoid prosecution himself, noting he didn't report the matter right away, the Daily News said. Maloney said he spoke up when he learned the police inquiry was zeroing in on Cruz.
