It was Germany’s biggest police scandal, which the special Nightlife Commission at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) has brought to light with meticulous work in recent years. It was about a lot of cocaine, shady relationships between police officers and a big dealer, drugged officials on duty and a former Oktoberfest host who couldn’t get enough of the snow. The trial against two other police officers in front of the Munich district court began on Monday, putting everything that has gone before in the shade.
According to their chats, two officers from the Old Town Watch went into the night shift “full of anticipation” to “destroy people” who would meet them and whose “lives would be turned into horror”. According to the indictment, Andreas Z. and Erik S. are said to have persecuted innocent people, testified falsely in court, coerced people – and passed on cocaine.
The internal investigator of the LKA, who has already testified in court in a number of Soko Nightlife proceedings, can be seen how disturbed he is by the chat messages from his colleagues who have since been suspended. The 28-year-old Andreas Z. and his colleague Erik S. did duty together at the old town guard in downtown Munich. They later talked about their assignments via Whatsapp – or encouraged each other in advance. “I’m curious to see which poor soul we will meet today,” wrote S. Who will hit the “cold asphalt of reality” – “that can happen very quickly”.
Two revelers were targeted by the officials on Sonnenstrasse
It also went very quickly for Elmar P. (name changed), 26, who was partying with his best friend at the time, Mikael M., on the night of November 25, 2016. Police inspection 11 is also responsible for the so-called celebration banana on Sonnenstraße. And there, in the 089 bar on Maximiliansplatz, the two young men had been drinking. At around 4:30 a.m. they came out of the club, crossed the street into the park across the street and were parked in a car parking bay when Z. and S. drove past in the patrol car. The police said in court that the revelers were about to step onto the road, “that looked deliberate, as a provocation,” Erik S. is sure. Elmar P., dark-haired and from Afghanistan, explained that he had often been checked by the police. In this respect, he was not surprised when the police officers stopped to check.
At this point, officers wore bodycams during the pilot phase. On the video that was shown at the trial, Elmar P. can be heard saying that he does not want to be filmed and that the camera should be turned off. To do this, he stretches his hand forward to cover the field of view of the camera. Then it started “like lightning”: fighting, screaming, his friend was lying on the ground. He had to stand a little apart against a tree. When he filmed what was happening, he was told he had to erase everything. He did that. “These are the police, I respect them.” And he would “never touch a police officer.”
But that is exactly what the two police officers wrote in their later statements. That Mikael M. hit the policeman S. and he then punched him in the nose. And that Elmar P. pushed the police officer Z. twice with both hands against the upper body. Immediately after the incident, S. sent the colleague a photo of M. with the bruised and bloody face. “I’m still very proud of how we smashed the guy,” he writes. And: “It was really a nice experience.” After judge Cornelia Amtage has read out the chat, Andreas Z. grins in the dock in the direction of his neighbor Erik S. and winks at him.
One defendant admitted that he invented the second shot
It was just a push, Z. now admitted. He invented the second “for embellishment” and because the senior S. had instructed him to do so. No, S. said on the other hand, he didn’t have that. The incident in front of the 089 bar also ended up in court: Andreas Z. and Erik S. confirmed the attacks and two shoves in the process, Mikael M. was sentenced to a youth prison term of one year and four months. The proceedings against Elmar P. were discontinued against payment of a fine of 300 euros.
“He should burn,” S. wrote to his colleague before the court hearing against M. “Both, yes,” replied Z. And after the trial, S. wrote that he thought it was “great” that M. had to have two nose operations. And Z.: “For the fact that the push against me was fictitious, 300 euros is a lot.” Finally, they amused that it was “the greatest humiliation” for the accused to have to apologize “for the fact that he was massively punched in the mouth”.
Z. is also charged with coercion because he is said to have threatened a man in custody that he would knock his teeth out. Colleague S. is said to have taken a man’s identity card and not given it back to him. In addition, Z. is said to have regularly dealt with drugs and laid a “line” for a colleague at a party.
The LKA investigator says that in his opinion, nothing in the police officers’ chats glorifying violence was exaggerated. “A great many cases” were checked, but mostly the victims were drunk and couldn’t remember. The process will continue next week.