Abner Louima says he forgives Justin Volpe — but will never forget brutal assault after ex-cop is released early from prison
Abner Louima, who was sodomized by ex-NYPD cop Justin Volpe in a 1997 attack that shocked the nation, told The Post on Tuesday he has forgiven his attacker — but will never forget.
“I’m a Christian. … Of course I’ve forgiven,” Louima, now 56, said the day after it surfaced that Volpe was just released early from federal prison after 24 years behind bars.
But Louima, a dad and grandfather, added, “My life has changed in the worst imaginable way.
“Of course I still think about my attack. I think about it most of the time. I still suffer emotionally,” he said.
“I will live with the pain for the rest of my life. I will suffer for the rest of my life,” said Louima, who has lived in Florida since 2001. “When something that bad happens to you, it’s something you have to live with and feel every day.
“The way I deal with it … I know it was real, but I have to pretend it wasn’t real.”
When asked about Volpe’s early release, Louima said he felt nothing.
“I am sure he’s paid for what he’s done,” Louima said. “He knows what he did, and if he wants to repent, it will be up to him.
“If the justice system wants to release him, they will. Let it be. I don’t have nothing against anyone. I know he did bad and spent some time thinking about what he did.”
Volpe, in his first public comments since being released to a New York halfway house, told The Post on Tuesday that he has “nothing but love” for his victim.
“I have nothing but love in my heart for New York City and everybody in my case involved, especially Mr. Louima,” the disgraced former cop said as he stood outside his family’s home in Fresh Kills, Staten Island.
Volpe, 51, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for sodomizing Louima, then 30, with a broken broomstick in an NYPD precinct.
Louima, a Haitian immigrant who Volpe wrongly thought struck him during a street melee in Brooklyn, was handcuffed at the time and needed several surgeries because his rectum and bladder were perforated during the heinous assault.
The horrific crime was painted on front pages across the country, and Volpe quickly became the poster child for police brutality.
The Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office called the savage assault “one of the most heinous crimes in New York City’s history” when it moved to oppose Volpe’s request for compassionate release two years ago after he caught COVID-19 behind bars. A judge eventually denied the request.
But the federal Bureau of Prisons just cut Volpe loose under the First Step Act, which grants early release to some federal offenders to lessen the prison population, according to sources.
“While I believe [Volpe] should have served his full sentence, let the message still go out to police officers all over this country that if you do what he did, you will spend a very long time in jail,” New York City lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, who reps Louima, told The Post.
Nowadays, Louima said, he spends most of his time with his four children and his twin grandchildren.
“All my kids and grandkids are in Florida — that’s my favorite time,” Louima said. “My grandchildren are my life.”
He received an $8.75 million settlement from the Big Apple over the assault.
