Yesterday 26-year-old NYPD Officer Kevin Maloney broke the blue wall of silence and corroborated allegations made by a Brooklyn man who claims he was sodomized by cops during an arrest in a subway station in 2008. Maloney testified, "I see Richard Kern has a metal retractable baton, known as the Asp, out. I saw Officer Richard Kern have it placed on Michael Mineo’s buttocks." Maloney witnessed a half inch or an inch of the baton disappeared in "Mineo’s butt crack," and testified that he later saw Mineo pull his hand from out of his pants and show the officers his bloody hands. But despite witnessing all this, Maloney kept his mouth shut for days.
"I came forward because the investigation was focused on someone else," he said in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, "and it shouldn’t be." Maloney, who is single and lives on Long Island with his family, had been on the force for 22 months before he crossed paths with Mineo, the Times reports. (He's previously worked in sales and as an umpire.) Maloney said he believed the investigation had begun to focus (wrongly) on Officer Alex Cruz, who along with Officer Andrew Morales is accused of helping cover up Officer Richard Kern’s actions.
Maloney also testified that he never heard Cruz say “you liked it,” as both Mineo and Officer Jugraj have alleged. And Mineo claims Kern repeatedly rammed him with the baton, but Maloney testified that he did not see that. Asked why he did not challenge Officer Kern about what he had done, Officer Maloney said, "Because I did not know him." Maloney waived his immunity in order to testify, and has since been transferred. Today prosecutors will present evidence that Mineo's DNA was found on Richard Kern's collapsible baton.
