Teens charge cops threatened them with rape

Allegations first made in 1985 that a New York City police officer and two Bronx Assistant District Attorneys threatened seven teenage boys with rape, beatings and incarceration were never investigated and have not resulted in any disciplinary action, according to a report on age-of-consent laws published in the Guide to the Gay Northeast's October 1989 issue. [...]

One of the boys, then 13 years old, states that the police came to his home and took him for questioning, telling his mother she could not come along. "I was kept for seven hours, during which time Detective Maginnis threatened to beat me, take me to Spoffard (a Bronx juvenile jail) where six guys his size would hold me down and fuck me up the ass, and he took out his gun and put it on the table in front of me while threatening me," the boy alleged. "I thought he was going to shoot me and say it was an accident, because I would not lie against my friend like he wanted me to." The boy also said that Sergeant Maginnis and Assistant DA Marymann Jennings repeatedly called him "queer" and "fag" and threatened to tell people at his school that he was gay. [...]

Lawyers contacted by The Guide said that this kind of harassment occurs frequently. Barbara Macy, a Boston attorney who has handled many cases involving police allegations of sex between men and adolescent boys said that she is often bothered by the way boys are treated by investigators. [...]

"We've got to crack the boy," Lieutenant Thorne told the Record, "and it's not an easy thing to do."

source: Article 'Teens Charge Cops Threatened Them With Rape' by Bill Andriette; NAMBLA Bulletin, vol. 10, n. 10; December 1989