Thursday, 4:30 PM
Former police officer gets reduction in sentence for assaulting Harvard student
By Shelley Murphy
Globe Staff
A federal judge today shaved 10 months off the 70-month prison term of former Boston Police Sergeant Harry A. Byrne Jr., who was convicted three years ago of breaking a Harvard student's jaw during a confrontation inside the Brighton police station and asking other officers to lie about the attack.
A contrite Byrne, 51, apologized to the victim during an emotional hearing before a courtroom packed with his family and friends and said the past 30 months he's spent in federal prison in North Carolina have been "one of the most painful things I've ever had to endure.''
The victim, Garett Trombly, who had addressed the court minutes earlier, objected to Byrne's bid for freedom, saying the officer should do more time because the attack on him was unprovoked.
US District Judge Richard G. Stearns ruled that Byrne was entitled to a lesser sentence, but not to immediate release, because he not only assaulted Trombly, but then tried to enlist four junior officers to lie for him.
Byrne, a 23-year member of the Boston Police Department admitted pushing Trombly, whom he arrested as part of a September 2001 crackdown on underage drinking in Brighton, but said he acted in self-defense because he thought Trombly was reaching for a weapon -- which turned out to be a cellphone. Trombly disputed Byrne's account.
In January, a federal appeals court upheld Byrne's conviction, but ordered him resentenced in the wake of a US Supreme Court decision that found that federal sentencing guidelines were unconstitutional because they were mandatory. The court found they should be advisory.
