Officer Aldo Brown Gets Two Years For Beating Caught On Video
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A judge sentenced Chicago Police Officer Aldo Brown to two years in prison for beating a man in 2012.
CBS 2's Mike Parker reports Officer Brown cried when a judge handed down that sentence.
Brown was shown on surveillance video beating and then kicking a convenience store employee in the South Shore neighborhood that some call "terror town."
Brown claimed he had seen a handgun in the man's waistband as he lifted his shirt.
"This guy was carrying a loaded handgun," Brown said. "He was a criminal, h had drugs on him and hey you know, justice wasn't served."
Brown will surrender to begin serving a two-year sentence in late June. He wept during the court hearing as judge Virginia Kendall told him he was "guilty of excessive force. When rights are eroded," the judge declared, "the community unravels."
"These police officers today, especially those that work in terror town, they go into a situation with a much different perspective than somebody that doesn't work in terror town, somebody that works in Dubuque, Iowa for an example," said defense attorney Dan Herbert.
"Police officers are under a lot of stress, dealing with all the shootings, murders and everything that's going on," Brown said. "It's making our job harder to do."
Brown's sister pleaded for mercy in court. She called her brother a man of "outstanding character... A part of the solution not a part of the problem."
Obviously, that plea did not work.
Defense lawyers say they will appeal.