By GREGORY N. HEIRES

A Local 375 member who was brutally beaten by Port Authority police when he intervened in a melee at Ground Zero is scheduled for trial March 4.

The PA police viciously kicked Michael Kenny in the face and broke his collarbone on April 13, 2002, when he came to the defense of a coworker who was being assaulted by out-of-control Port Authority cops.

As a Supervising Engineer for the Dept. of Design and Construction, Mr. Kenny was in charge of the cleanup site that night. “Mike helps a colleague who was unjustly beaten, and he winds up being arrested and brutalized himself,” said Claude Fort, president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375. “Is that justice in America? It’s absurd.”

For imploring the Port Authority cowboy cops to stop assaulting his coworker, Mr. Kenny was charged with obstructing a police officer, disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest. The local has lent him $25,000 to help with his legal fees. “This is a total injustice,” said Ron Vega, 1st vice president of Local 375’s Chapter 4 (structures) at DDC, who worked with Mr. Kenny at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 attack.

“It’s the ultimate in police brutality, because it happened on hallowed ground,” said Mr. Vega, who is organizing Local 375 members to accompany Mr. Kenny to court. The incident occurred late in the evening as Mr. Kenny was ending his shift.

The cops first attacked Clint Collins, a Laborer for one of the contractors at the site. Mr. Collins was ignored as he tried to stop a PA cop from driving a van with guests into the pit because they weren’t wearing the required protective gear. After he took down the license plate of the van as it came out of the pit, the driver returned to confront Mr. Collins with a group of PA cops. They charged him with assault and resisting arrest.

The cops turned on Mr. Kenny when he tried to break up the fight. They beat him, then cuffed him and held him for two hours at the PA’s temporary headquarters a few blocks from Ground Zero. They didn’t allow him to call his wife and failed to provide immediate medical attention. He was later taken to Bellevue Hospital, where they handcuffed him to a gurney.

“By the time he got out of the hospital, and subsequent police custody, it was 3 p.m.,” said Mr. Vega. “Mike took a cab back to Ground Zero because he wanted to show that they couldn’t break his spirit. Afterwards, we made him go home.”