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Another NYPD Sodomy Case Is Already in Court!?
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 6, 2010
Modified Dec 6, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 6, 2010
Modified Dec 6, 2010
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A Wall Street financial consultant claims that cops sodomized him with a retractable police baton (sound familiar) while arresting him in his Bronx apartment... back in 2004. Why are we only hearing about it now? It seems that for whatever reason Ralph Johnson, 40, didn't really want a lot of media attention about the alleged sodomy. But now the horse is out of the back doors of the barn, and a civil lawsuit is already being tried in federal court in Manhattan.
Johnson's troubles started one summer night in 2004, when his girlfriend flipped out after seeing him talking with another lady at a bar. Back home, she confronted him with a bank statement showing a charge for a hotel room, and when Johnson responded with the silent treatment, she began throwing things around and breaking windows. He finally forced her out of the apartment and locked her out, at which point she pounded on the door until six neighbors' calls to 911 brought the cops.
When they kicked the door in, Johnson was sitting on the couch, and he tells the AP, "I didn't know what to do. I just froze. They were kicking and punching me. They threw me on the ground, face first." He alter testified, "When I was face down ... my legs were held and I felt a sharp jabbing pain into my rectum." Naturally, cops deny sodomizing Johnson, and they say the baton was only used to "pry his arms into position to be handcuffed." But a doctor who examined Johnson testified that he saw abrasions and oozing blood that were "consistent with what he said happened to him."
Johnson's DNA was also found on the retractable police baton, and the AP reports that this is the same type of baton that Michael Mineo claims was used on him. Also weird: Johnson's ex-girlfriend says that after cops dragged him off, she later got a call from a cop asking "if there was any reason a video camera would be set up (there)." And Johnson's jeans were also torn, but a lawyer for the city says, "He was wearing underwear and, low and behold, the underwear has no hole in it." Speaking of underwear and Mineo and sodomy, Mineo's boxers—a crucial piece of evidence to his civil lawsuit—have gone missing!
Tagged
cop sodomy
nypd sodomy
ralph johnson
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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