PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A former Woonsocket police officer was sentenced Friday to one year and a day in federal prison for beating up a teenage boy who was in his custody.
The sentence given to John H. Douglas was shorter than the 18-month prison term sought by federal prosecutors but harsher than the home confinement requested by his lawyer.
Douglas pleaded guilty in June to a federal civil rights charge, admitting that he assaulted the boy, then 16, in a stairwell of the Woonsocket police station last fall. He has resigned from the police department and apologized on Friday.
"By assaulting a teenage boy in his custody, Officer Douglas crossed a line that cannot be crossed," prosecutor John McAdams said, later adding, "This attack was also an attack on people's faith in law enforcement."
Prosecutors say the boy scuffled with several officers on the night of Sept. 15, 2009, after he was recognized as having escaped from a probationary program.
They say Douglas punched the boy in a police station stairwell -- an area not monitored by police surveillance cameras -- as revenge for another officer's injuries during the earlier fight. The attack occurred after the teenager, whose name was not released by authorities because he is a juvenile, was returned to the police station from a hospital.
Douglas punched him several times in the face and struck him in the torso with his knee after inviting the teenager to take a swing at him, prosecutors say. The teenager's handcuffs had been removed, but his leg restraints stayed on.
The boy's injuries -- which included a broken eye socket -- were noticed when he was later taken to family court, where the chief judge demanded an FBI investigation. Douglas was arrested last December and charged with depriving the teenager of his civil rights.
Douglas's lawyer, Thomas Briody, argued that his client was an otherwise excellent officer who made a bad mistake and was dealing at the time of the assault with post-traumatic stress disorder following the suicide of someone close to him.
He said the loss of his client's career, coupled with his criminal conviction, was enough of a deterrent to other officers tempted to do the same thing.
"Is there anyone here who would willingly endure what my client has gone through?" Briody said.
But U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi said while she recognized Douglas's solid record as a police officer, she considered the beating a "very serious offense" that merited prison.
"An individual who was given the opportunity to serve his community as a law enforcement officer engaged in behavior toward an individual that is simply not acceptable in our society," Lisi said.
Douglas was also given six months' home confinement following his sentence.
