SWAGGERING like a cop, Justin Volpe walks to the spectator section of the Brooklyn federal courtroom to exchange hellos with his father, Robert.
Justin Volpe, accused with other cops of torturing a Haitian immigrant, smiles casually as his father touches his hand.
Dapper in a double-breasted suit and slicked-back hair, Volpe seems confident for a man who will be forever associated with one of the most heinous crimes alleged in NYPD history – shoving a stick up Abner Louima’s rectum inside a Brooklyn police station.
Robert Volpe, 56, understands why his son acted this way yesterday in a courtroom where his future will be decided.
“He looks so calm because he already went through 19 months of hell,” said Robert Volpe, a retired cop.
“This is a ray of sunshine. The truth is coming out.”
Sunshine to the Volpe family is the truth as they know it, and not as the public has been led to believe.
The truth that Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Thompson revealed yesterday was that Louima lied about certain aspects of his alleged torture at the hands of Volpe and his fellow officers. A prime example was when Louima quoted Justin Volpe as saying it’s “Giuliani time” while allegedly sexually abusing him, because he knew the comment would attract media attention.
Louima also lied when he claimed his front teeth were knocked out when cops took the same feces-caked stick and shoved it into his mouth.
It turns out Louima’s front teeth were false.
“Abner Louima is not on trial, these men are,” said Thompson, waving his hand at the table where the five cops were sitting stone-faced with their lawyers.
That is true. But for the first time since the August 1997 attack, Volpe’s father is speaking up to tell New Yorkers they shouldn’t believe everything in the media or from the pundits who get on television and make accusations against his son.
Right or wrong, Robert Volpe is obligated to defend his son – as any parent should. Just as Louima and his family were scalded by this racially charged incident, so was Volpe’s family, who had no part in the alleged attack.
His family received numerous death threats, the father said, which forced them to live elsewhere in the city.
“We would be walking across the street, hear his name, and we would move up ready to protect him,” Robert Volpe said, describing a typical family outing in the city.
Robert Volpe said he felt like Monica Lewinsky’s mother when investigators called him to testify before a federal grand jury.
The well-known retired detective, who has gone before hundreds of grand juries, said, “I never thought of calling in parents when I worked a case unless the parents were driving the getaway car.”
Like Monica Lewinsky’s mother, he claims calling him to the grand jury was designed to embarrass his son.
Calling his son’s fiancee, Susie, a black woman, into the grand jury also irritated the family. The pressure on Susie was so great, she moved into the Volpe household because of the publicity following the attack.
Robert Volpe said his son was tried, convicted and sentenced by the public shortly after the Louima story made headlines.
“Something from the beginning was wrong here,” he said, tapping his nose with his forefinger.
He forced himself not to hit the streets like he used to and conduct his own investigation to clear his son’s name. He let New York City justice take its course.
At least one courtroom observer thinks the case “looks like a slam dunk” for the prosecutors.
But for Robert Volpe, the life-and-death struggle to save his son has just begun.