SEATTLE (AP) - A now-former police officer has been sentenced to a nine months in prison for an attack on a restrained man at a Seattle hospital.
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour issued the sentence Tuesday for 36-year-old Nicholas Hogan, who worked as a police officer in Tukwila and Snoqualmie. Hogan pleaded guilty in November to a charge of depriving a man of his civil rights.
Hogan acknowledged in his plea agreement that in 2011 he repeatedly struck a handcuffed man while transporting him to Harborview Medical Center, then pepper-sprayed the man after he had been placed on a gurney in four-point restraints. Hogan agreed not to seek further employment in law enforcement or as a security guard for 15 years.
U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes says Hogan was a “bad apple” who needed to be held to account.
His lawyer argued that Hogan had already lost his job and that there was no need to send him to prison.
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