Justin A. Volpe et al. Trials: 1999 & 2000

At his sentencing for his conviction at the first trial, Volpe claimed that Wiese, not Schwarz, had been the other police officer in the restroom during the assault. The question of which policeman helped brutalize Abner Louima was crucial as the second trial, for conspiracy to cover up the crime, began on February 7, 2000, in Brooklyn Federal District Court. If Schwarz, who had now been convicted, was not directly involved in the bathroom torture after all, how could he be charged with covering up his part? If Wiese, instead, had been there, charges should now be brought against him. And if Volpe alone was responsible, the case should be closed as a single charge covered Schwarz, Wiese, and Bruder.

The three men were equally charged with lying to authorities in an attempt to clear Schwarz of the crime he had been convicted of in the first trial.

More than 100 pieces of evidence and some 23 witnesses, several of whom had testified at the first trial, were produced to support prosecutor Alan Vinegard's theory that Wiese had lied early in the investigation when he said he saw only Volpe and the victim, and not Schwarz, in the bathroom just after the attack. And, Vinegard asserted, Bruder lied months later by telling federal agents he concurred with Wiese.