Cop Anthony Abbate Gets Probation, No Jail, For Beating Female Bartender (WATCH SURVEILLANCE VIDEO)

[democracy1st]

CHICAGO — An off-duty Chicago police officer convicted of pummeling a female bartender half his size was sentenced Tuesday to two years probation and anger management classes for the videotaped attack that appeared worldwide on the Internet and cable news channels.

Cook County Circuit Judge John Fleming also gave Anthony Abbate a home curfew of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and ordered him to perform 130 hours of community service.


Prosecutors had asked for prison for Abbate _ he could have been sentenced to up to five years behind bars _ but the judge said he didn't see aggravating factors to justify a prison term.

"If I believed sentencing Anthony Abbate to prison would stop people from getting drunk and hitting people, I'd give him the maximum sentence," Fleming said.

Earlier this month, the judge rejected Abbate's claim he acted in self-defense and convicted him of aggravated battery. A tavern security video shows a drunken, 250-pound Abbate punching and kicking the 125-pound Karolina Obrycka as she tended bar in February 2007. The altercation happened after she refused to serve him more drinks.

The video captured a lot of attention as another example of misconduct by Chicago police. Then-Superintendent Phil Cline suddenly announced his retirement shortly after the video surfaced and former FBI official Jody Weis was appointed to the spot with an order to clean up the department's image.

Abbate acknowledged during the trial that he was drunk during the incident. But he said Obrycka pushed him first as she tried to remove him from behind the bar.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/23/ex-cop-anthony-abbate-get_n_219651.html


speechless


Who is Cook County Circuit Judge John Fleming

http://www.chicagocouncil.org/judicial_pdfs/F/John%20J.%20Fleming.pdf

[MajorChode]

1. What an asshole

Sentencing is not just about preventing other people from committing crime. It is to punish the offender for what they have done.

[chollybocker]

2. What a joke.

Now every loudmouth drunk who is refused a drink gets to beat up the bartender with relative impugnity.

What a joke.

[thunder rising]

3. The real scary thing is that he is a cop. And there are many more like him

[democracy1st]

4. see when all those minorities were blown away with multiple bullets the country didn't care

and those were people that were innocent not crooked thugs. Now we see that its not a color issue.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Damn. Another state-sponsored domestic terrorist walks.