One evening in the summer of 2004, Ralph Johnson, a former investment banker who is a current employee of a "financial consulting firm" and a partner in "a precious metals venture," had a little tiff with his girlfriend, Alison Bongo. The couple was at a "Manhattan nightspot," when Ms. Bongo "blew up" after Johnson, her live-in boyfriend, "spoke to another woman."
Back at their apartment, "the argument escalated" (on her end) when Bongo "confronted" Johnson with a bank statement with an "unexplained charge for a hotel room." Johnson then responded in the way that is most infuriating to females, i.e. with silence. "I tried to talk to him about it and he wouldn't listen." Bongo became even more enraged as the silent treatment continued, even after she started "throwing things around and breaking windows." When Johnson finally reacted, it was by "carrying her to the doorstep and locking her out." Wrong move! Bongo started banging on the doors and "screaming at the top of her lungs," so loudly that a neighbor called the police. Six of them broke down the door and found Johnson sitting on the couch.
Naturally, they then proceeded to throw him on the ground, face first. What happens next is in dispute. But perhaps the question a cop nervously asked Ms. Bongo before he left might be able to shed some light, namely, "if there was any reason a video camera would be set up in the apartment"?
He may have wanted to know because as a member of the NYPD, he was proud of having sodomized a citizen, as the victim alleges. The cops claim other than a little roughing up, they treated Johnson fairly); according to Johnson, they shoved a baton up his ass.
"When I was face down ... my legs were held and I felt a sharp jabbing pain into my rectum," Johnson testified. A doctor who examined Johnson testified that he saw abrasions and oozing blood that were "consistent with what he said happened to him."
Prosecutors say Johnson's jeans had "a hole torn through the seat and lab results confirming his DNA was on a skinny, retractable police baton." The defense claims there are holes in Johnson's story because he can't identify who did what he alleges to him (perhaps because his face was on the floor) and because "he was wearing underwear and, low and behold, the underwear has no hole in it."
Johnson says, who is seeking unspecified damages, says he initially didn't want to go forward with the allegations because he was worried the police "would put me on the news [and that] they would contact my employer and all my clients."
The trial is still ongoing but for those of you hoping it'd be the thing that brought Johnson and Bongo back together, think again.
At the current trial, Bongo coolly recounted how the arrest was the beginning of the end for the couple. "Do you have any interest in testifying on behalf of Mr. Johnson or helping Mr. Johnson?" his lawyer asked. "No," she replied, without hesitation.
