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OFFICER’S ‘SODOMY’ TESTIMONY

In stunning testimony to a grand jury yesterday, a cop said a fellow officer ran a metal baton against the buttocks of a handcuffed man who later claimed he was sodomized, The Post has learned.

It was the first time Officer Richard Kern was identified as the 71st Precinct cop who had touched pot-possession suspect Michael Mineo, 24, with an ASP expandable baton, a law-enforcement source noted.

The testimony corroborated accounts from witnesses at the Prospect Park subway station on Oct. 15 – and provided disturbing detail that lends credibility to Mineo’s accusation.

About an hour before the chilling testimony, Mineo gave the grand jury his account.

“At first, I felt like people weren’t believing me,” he said later. “And, you know, now that things are coming to the light, I feel a little bit more better that I know these cops are going to brought to justice.”

The testifying officer – a 26-year-old, two-year transit-unit cop and the son of a retired transit worker – didn’t claim to have seen the alleged sodomy.

He recounted that at 1:30 p.m., he saw Mineo running down the stairs with Kern and Officer Alex Cruz of the 71st Precinct in pursuit. Mineo was running right toward him, but then bolted, the cop said.

Familiar with the station, he tried to head him off, but next saw Mineo run out the station gate, where he crashed into another uniformed cop. Together, he testified, the cops struggled with Mineo and placed him on the floor on his stomach.

“Why are you arresting me – I’m not doing anything!” the cop quoted Mineo as screaming.

The cop testified that as the officers were about to lift up the cuffed Mineo, whose low-riding jeans exposed his underwear, he saw Kern place the 8-inch metal baton against Mineo’s left side and run it from left to right across his buttocks.

The witness said he then heard Mineo scream, “Why did you shove an antenna up my ass?” as cops hauled him to his feet.

Kern, the witness testified, quickly declared, “This guy is an EDP” – cop parlance for emotionally disturbed person.

Later, the officer testified, he learned the cops were only going to “96 him” – meaning Mineo would merely be given a summons for disorderly conduct.

As The Post reported, Mineo’s underwear was bloody and there was a half-inch by half-inch tear in them – and the cops allegedly warned Mineo that if he complained, the charges would be upgraded to a felony.

Mineo sustained an internal rectal injury.

A week later, when the story surfaced, the cooperating officer realized the significance of what he may have witnessed and came forward, a source said.

Efforts to reach Kern were not successful.

Kern was the focus of lawsuits accusing him of brutality in a 2007 arrest, a source said. The suits were settled.

murray.weiss@nypost.com