I’m not sure how much attention this attracted nationwide, but in the NY Metro area, one of the more sensational police brutality cases in recent years was the case of Abner Louima, who was sodomized with a plunger (sustaining serious injuries) in the bathroom of a police station. Justin Volpe was convicted of the assault. Two other officers (named Wiese and Bruder) were convicted of covering up the crime.
Charles Schwarz was additionally convicted of having participated in the actual crime. This by virtue of being the person who led Louima to the bathroom. For this he was sentenced to 15 years in prison (he has already served 2).
The evidence against Schwarz comes from two sources. Fellow officer Eric Turetsky says he saw Schwarz lead Louima into the bathroom. And Louima himself says that while he can’t identify the officer, it was the same officer who drove the police car taking him to the station - that officer was Schwarz.
By contrast, Justin Volpe himself says that Wiese took Louima into the bathroom. Wiese himself agrees with this. (Schwarz himself claims to have been outside the stationhouse at the time, although apparently no one can corroborate this).
Doubt has been cast on both the sources that implicate Schwarz. One of the policemen who initially interviewed Turetsky (Walsh) says that Turetsky said at the time that he was unsure if the person he saw was Schwarz or Wiese. Two other officers who participated in that interview don’t remember this detail, though one of them does remember Turetsky saying that he had a problem distinguishing Schwarz from Wiese. This latter detail cuts both ways, because though it does tend to cast doubt on the testimony of Walsh, it also tends to undermine the testimony of Abner Louima, whose identification hinges on his ability to link the guy in the station house to the one in the car. Clearly if these officers looked so similar that their fellow officer had a hard time telling them apart, it’s difficult to put much stock in an ID made by Louima.
None of this is remotely conclusive, of course. In particular, the fellow officers on the side of Schwarz were convicted of covering up the crime or the crime itself - their credibility is suspect. But the evidence in favor of conviction seems pretty weak to me. I’d say there is a good chance that an innocent man is spending 15 years of his life behind bars.
A NY Times article including some links to some other articles.