Three police officers mistreated a drug suspect, covering up a quick but painful violation of his body, argued a Brooklyn prosecutor at the close Wednesday of a police sodomy trial.
"On October 15, 2008 these defendants had an obligation to protect and serve Michael Mineo as well and they failed and committed a crime," said prosecutor Charles Guria.
Police officer Richard Kern is accused of shoving his retractable police baton into Mineo's rear end and two other cops are charged with covering up the alleged assault.
Jurors started deliberations Wednesday.
Brandishing the baton in front of the jury during his closing arguments, Guria banged it against a table three times in about two seconds -- demonstrating how quickly Kern could have violated the handcuffed Mineo, stopped by cops that October afternoon for smoking pot.
"Richard Kern is in a position where he can insert this baton," said Guria.
Bringing up his star witness, a transit cop who said he saw the alleged penetration, Guria praised him as a cop "with no ax to grind" who risked his career by breaking the blue wall of silence.
"Why would he do that if he wasn't sure about what he saw?" Guria asked. Kern and the other cop defendants, Andrew Morales and Alex Cruz, leaned forward in their chairs, hanging on Guria's every word.
He stressed that scientific analysis found Mineo's blood on his torn underwear and could not rule out his DNA on the baton. The defense has argued strenuously that the DNA evidence is non-conclusive and several types were found on the baton.
Making the case for cover-up, he said the officers were determined to cut Mineo loose with a summons rather than risk bringing him back to a precinct where other cops could question why he had blood on his hand and was complaining about being violated.
Slamming the defense of Officer Morales, Guria showed the jury a printout of Mineo's criminal history clearly showing he had a warrant that October day and should have been arrested. However Morales had testified that when he ran a computer check, no warrant came up for Mineo.
"He (Morales) was going to back up his partner Richard Kern and ignore the fact that Michael Mineo was injured and that he had a warrant," Guria said.
As for Mineo, Guria called him a victim despite his criminal past and current $440 million civil suit.
"What type of gravy train is Michael Mineo going to have at this point in time if nothing happened?" Guria asked.
Earlier, defense attorney Richard Murray belittled the case as absurd mainly for lacking evidence of blunt trauma injury.
"This whole prosecution is stupid," Murray said.
After the judge's instruction on the law, the fate of the three officers rests with the jury of seven women and five men.
