Justin Volpe, left, and his attorney Marvyn Kornberg, leave U. S. District Court in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998. Volpe is one of five New York City police officers who were indicted Thursday on federal civil rights charges in the case of Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant allegedly beaten and sodomized in a police station. (AP Photo/Michael Schmelling)
One of the former NYPD officers who violently brutalized Abner Louima with a broomstick in 1997 was denied release by a Brooklyn judge on Monday.
Justin Volpe reportedly applied for compassionate release, claiming his was a changed man who had caught COVID-19 behind bars, according to the Daily News.
The judge argued that Volpe "does not present any extraordinary and compelling reasons based on the possibility of contracting COVID-19" and that lowering the ex-cop's sentence was not warranted based on "the grave nature and circumstances of his crime."
Volpe pleaded guilty to sodomizing Louima with a stick in the bathroom of the 70th precinct station house. He is serving a 30-year sentence.
The attack nearly killed Louima and sparked racial tension and outcries of police brutality citywide.
Four other cops were also charged in that case, but only one, Charles Schwarz, was convicted and sentenced to prison.
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New York settled a civil suit with Louima for $8.5 million.
