When: August 29, 1997

The facts: A fight breaks out at around 4a.m. between two women outside a club in Flatbush. Ten cops from the 70th Precinct respond to a call for help. While trying to restore order, officer Justin Volpe is punched and two other officers (Charles Schwarz and Thomas Wiese) mistakenly identify the Haitian immigrant Abner Louima as the culprit and arrest him. On the way to the precinct, writes Craig Horowitz, Louima is "allegedly beaten in the back of the patrol car twice -- once by the arresting officers and once, at a different location, by Volpe and his partner, Thomas Bruder. Then, of course, the night's appalling denouement took place in the Seven-Oh's bathroom." Officer Justin Volpe sodomizes Abner Louima with the broken end of a broomstick.

The guilty: Volpe pleads guilty and receives a sentence of 30 years in prison. Charles Schwarz is charged with holding down Louima while Volpe assaulted him; Volpe and Schwarz repeatedly deny that Schwarz was in the room. After three trials, Charles Schwarz avoids a fourth by pleading guilty to perjury. Conspiracy and civil rights charges against him were dropped. He began serving a five-year sentence in December of 2002.

The settlement: Louima is awarded a $8.7 million settlement from New York City and the Policeman's Benevolent Association.