Witchy Woman

"Jury selection began in a federal lawsuit against two Chicago police officers accused of beating a gay man.
Alexander Ruppert claims that officers Vincent Torres and Kent Pemberton beat him and denied him his civil rights solely because of his sexuality in a 2006 altercation.
Ruppert, 37, says he was beaten nearly unconscious while the cops hurled anti-gay remarks at him and then placed him in a holding cell for two days without food or water.
The lawsuit also names the City of Chicago as a defendant.
The lawsuit claims Ruppert was removed by the two officers from the Uptown Lounge following a disturbance and placed in a squad car.
He was not initially charged with any offense and was not handcuffed, court papers say.
The suit says that Ruppert then was driven to deserted area behind a theater where he was beaten while the officers called him a “faggot” and other derogatory remarks.
The cops allegedly stopped the beating when Ruppert told them he had AIDS.
Ruppert was then taken to an area hospital where he received 16 stitches for injuries to his face and head.
The lawsuit says that following the hospital visit, he was taken to the Foster Avenue police station and held for 48 hours without food or water. The court papers say that Ruppert was forced to drink from a toilet.
He was charged with resisting arrest and aggravated battery against a police officer, and held for a week in the Cook County Jail, until he could make a $50,000 bond.
The felony charges were dropped after Ruppert agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge."

Cops beat a gay man.

"Prosecutors have asked two patrolmen to turn themselves in to face charges in the case of a man who claims he was sodomized during an arrest on a subway platform, the officers’ lawyers said Monday.
Officers Richard Kern and Alex Cruz face arraignment Tuesday on charges contained in a sealed indictment, the lawyers said. A third officer also is expected to surrender.
The lawyers were not notified of specific charges but said their clients would plead not guilty.
Representatives of the district attorney’s office declined to comment.
“We don’t know what the people’s proof is, but as far as I’m concerned my client is not guilty,” said Kern’s attorney, John Patten.
Cruz “never observed any misconduct nor engaged in any misconduct,” said his lawyer, Stuart London.
The two officers approached Michael Mineo on Oct. 15 outside a subway station because they believed he was smoking marijuana, police said. When Mineo fled into the station, they and two other uniformed officers wrestled him to the ground face down and handcuffed him.
Mineo, 24, a body piercer at a tattoo parlor, claims that during the struggle his pants were pulled down and one of the officers sodomized him. He has said he believed he was violated with the antenna of a hand-held radio, and that the assailant was Cruz.
A transit officer told a grand jury last month that he saw Kern place a baton near Mineo’s buttocks, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the proceedings are not public.
The Police Department has said other eyewitness witness accounts don’t support Mineo’s claim.
Mineo was given a ticket for disorderly conduct. He was hospitalized for several days and treated for anal injuries, according to medical records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, in a separate New York City case, authorities say a 16-year-old boy has been charged with sodomizing a 14-year-old boy with a broomstick.
The Staten Island district attorney’s office says it is not ruling out more arrests.
Authorities said 16-year-old Joseph Lavalle was arraigned Saturday on a charge of aggravated sexual abuse and assault. He was released on his own recognizance and is due for another court appearance next month.
His attorney, Richard Kopacz, was not in his office for comment Monday morning.
Police say the incident occurred last week as the victim, the suspect and several other teens were hanging out together in the backyard of a Staten Island home."

Sodomizing cops.

"[Starla D.] Darling, who was pregnant when her insurance ran out, worked at Archway for eight years, and her father, Franklin J. Phillips, worked there for 24 years.
"When I heard that I was losing my insurance," she said, "I was scared. I remember that the bill for my son's delivery in 2005 was about $9,000, and I knew I would never be able to pay that by myself."
So Ms. Darling asked her midwife to induce labor two days before her health insurance expired.
"I was determined that we were getting this baby out, and it was going to be paid for," said Ms. Darling, who was interviewed at her home here as she cradled the infant in her arms.
As it turned out, the insurance company denied her claim, leaving Ms. Darling with more than $17,000 in medical bills."

Pregnant woman denied insurance.