A Local Louima?

Police are denying reports that they beat and sodomized a man at the Prospect Park subway station on October 15:

Michael Mineo says he was standing outside the Prospect Park subway station in Prospect Lefferts Gardens at 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 15 when a group of uniformed cops approached him and accused him of smoking marijuana.

The confrontation escalated, Mineo says, and he fled into the station. There, he says, the cops jumped him. While one cop held his legs and another held his shoulders, he says one of the cops pulled down his pants.

At that point, Mineo says, one of the cops shoved something - apparently the antenna of a police radio - into his rectum.

According to police, however, "Police officers grappled with an individual who they observed smoking marijuana after he had fled and resisted being handcuffed," Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said. "His assertion that he was sodomized is not supported by independent civilian witnesses on the scene."

It is unclear how true that account is, however, as the Daily News quotes an unnamed police source as there being a witness that saw Mineo's naked behind (but not any sodomizing) and heard Mineo protest  "Why are you trying to taser me? Why did you stick a walkie-talkie up my ass?" Whether the protest was sincere is unclear, as none of the officers apparently had tasers.

UPDATE: According to Newsday, the accused police officers are "in some kind of trouble."

Michael Mineo has injuries that show he was beaten and sexually assaulted, the source said. Records obtained by The Associated Press show Mineo arrived at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center on Oct. 15 complaining he had been assaulted by police with a foreign object. The papers say he left the hospital four days later after he was treated for "anal assault."

"There's something inappropriate that happened here," the source said. "Whether it's something criminal or something that would be handled departmentally, it's too early to tell. He's got injuries that support his claim. Someone has to explain his injuries.

"I think we're looking at a situation in which these cops are in a jam."