Opening arguments in assault trial of Nassau County police officer begin

A Nassau police officer's trial began Tuesday with a prosecutor saying the defendant dealt "at least 18 blows" to a motorist in an unjustified beating at a Westbury traffic stop.

But the defense countered the force used was "reasonable, necessary and justified" as the officer made a split-second decision.

Officer Vincent LoGiudice, 35, waived a jury as his trial began in Nassau County Court. That means Judge Patricia Harrington will decide the verdict in an assault case in which the officer, who joined the police force in 2007, faces up to 7 years in prison if convicted of the top count.

The charges, two felonies and a misdemeanor, arose from an April 25, 2014, encounter with motorist Kyle Howell that a store's outside surveillance camera recorded and Howell and his family later retrieved.

The Westbury man, then 20, suffered injuries including nasal and orbital fractures and needed nose and eye surgery, prosecutor Bernadette Ford said. LoGiudice inflicted a minimum of 18 blows on the motorist, punching him, kneeing him in the face and repeatedly hitting him in the face with a flashlight or other object, according to Ford.

She said the assault happened in the confined space of a 2002 Honda, with LoGiudice's partner, Officer Basil Gomez, straddling Howell. She also said there were no weapons and only a small amount of drugs in the car.

"The bottom line is, judge, the people will establish that Officer LoGiudice was not justified in using the extent of force inflicted on Kyle Howell," Ford said.

But defense attorney William Petrillo insisted it was "not a case of police brutality."

Petrillo said LoGiudice "in a split-second had to react" during a car stop in which he recognized Howell as someone who had been arrested "for robberies and burglaries." Petrillo said the officers were patrolling a high-crime area after being warned they might run into street violence in the wake of a drive-by shooting.

Ford told the judge Howell went into his glove compartment for the car's registration, and police saw marijuana -- which Howell knew could affect his probation from a 2011 conviction.

She said LoGiudice reacted by seizing Howell's phone, walking away and shutting off a recording Howell had started. Gomez had warned Howell not to record the police during a previous interaction, Ford said.

Howell then dived toward the glove compartment -- thinking he'd spread the marijuana on the curb -- and LoGiudice attacked Howell, Ford said.

But Petrillo said when Howell dived across the car, LoGiudice's thoughts went to his then-pregnant wife, the neighborhood and Howell's criminal history.

"At that moment in time, fear kicked in," Petrillo said of an officer he described as having a master's degree and the valedictorian of his police academy class.

Petrillo said the video doesn't show the position of Howell's hands or what Howell was doing when he dived across the car, and added the motorist violently resisted arrest.

Police had arrested Howell for alleged offenses including assaulting the two officers, tampering with evidence, resisting arrest and drug charges, but authorities dropped that case after the store video surfaced.

Howell's parents, Joan and Donovan Howell, expressed hope yesterday that justice will prevail in what they've called a racial profiling incident in which their son was brutalized.

Police union leader James Carver said union members were confident LoGiudice would be acquitted.