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Another Man Says Police Raped Him With a Plunger

Christine Phillip
BET.com Staff Writer
October 17, 2003

Reports that Minneapolis officers sodomized a Black man with the handle of a plunger is heightening already tense relations between police and the Black community.

In fact, things are so tense that Police Chief Robert Olson has turned the case over to the FBI -- a rare move, he said. A series of police brutality charges have overshadowed the Minneapolis Police Department in recent months, and a federal team has been meeting with officials to discuss the matter.

According to Stephen Porter, 25, two officers with a search warrant entered a home where he was staying. He said that one officer left him in the living room and moved everyone else to the kitchen. Porter previously had been a confidential informant for the officer.

Porter said the officer frisked him, and not finding anything, took a plunger handle and shoved it into his rectum four times, tearing tissue.

Porter was arrested but was released without being charged; he received medical attention after reporting the incident.

Olson said officers found marijuana and what appears to be cocaine during the raid on the house. The officers -- Todd Babekuhl, 41, and Jeffrey Jindra, 43 -- were suspended with pay.

A police supervisor, who is questioning Porter's claim, says he has a history of hiding crack cocaine in his rectum.

Mayor R.T. Rybak has promised "immediate and swift consequences" if Porter's claims are true.

FBI Agent Paul McCabe said the agency would review the case and then consult the U.S. attorney's office.

The case is strangely reminiscent of a 1997 incident in which New York City Police Officer Justin Volpe sodomized a young, Black Haitian immigrant with a toilet plunger.
The victim in that case, Abner Louima, was in critical condition after the assault and needed surgery to repair a puncture in his small intestine and an injury to his bladder.

Louima won an $8.75 million settlement in the case. Volpe, 25, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated sexual assault.

What should happen to police if the claims are true? What can be done to improve racial relations between Blacks and police?