abusive harrassing boss

i work in new jersey for a major world wide bank, in the top 10 worldwide. my immediate supervisor is a verbally abusive, lazy , selfish man who sleeps for hours on the job. in the 13 months i have worked here he has had no fewer than 2 written complaints about him and one verbal .. for these transgressions ... one person even taped him sleeping for hours with thier camera phone...

a month ago, while i was training a new employee, a bank transaction got hung up and wasn't noticed for 45 minutes .. he then proceeded to yell and curse at me once .. yell and curse at me twice .. the third time i had enough.. i replied back to him " what the *** do you want from me, i'm working, i'm training, why didn't you catch it"
i then sent an e-mail to our boss and days later we met and i complained about his abuse and his sleeping.
today i was called in to hr and written up for being beligerent when confronted with my " subpar work" of that evening. ... so i complained about him, yet i was the one written up ... and i'm not even sure my complaint or any in the past were put to hr. she seemed surprised when i said " so it's ok for him to curse at me, but i'm not allowed to defend myself"
our boss who was also at the meeting then cut in with this gem " every army has thier mcarthur's and patton's " the girl from hr laughed and said she liked that line and would use it in the future ... they are condoning his abusive treatment and i feel i was retaliated against for complaining about him. none of my co-workers was even questioned about his abusiveness or sleeping on the job .. i'm not even sure it was elevated past my boss after i complained ...

i have the printouts of the e-mails of complaint about him, as well as a timeline of company policy he has abused ... i will now shop around for a lawyer to file a case before i get fired....
my question .. considering that nothing has been done about this guy after numerous complaints, do i have a case? and if any lawyers out there read this and are interested in representing me please reply. to me this is an open and shut case of harassment and retaliation.

If he swore at you or threatened you, you could take action. But yelling at you, etc. even if bad management, is not illegal.

he has swown at me and other co-workers .. i can count 3 off the top of my head ... for example " how could you fn miss that " and " what the f is wrong with you"

i am going to do this .. ask for a meeting with hr and my bosses boss .. and ask, specifically what is accepatable and what is not ... in our employee handbook it says harassment intimidation and retaliation are no-no's .. and i feel all three apply here .. had i not complained about him first, i'm sure i would not have been written up ...
if management wants me to tape record my night in order to catch him cursing then i will..... but he has had so many complaints and incidents already , so many different people ... what will it take to get him to stop??!!! surely harassment can't be legal

let us know how it goes