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A former Milwaukee police officer whose violent shove of a handcuffed suspect was caught on booking room video was sentenced Friday to 250 hours of community service and fined $2,000.

Rodney R. Lloyd, 49, was found guilty last month of misconduct in office, a felony, but the same jury, after about nine hours of deliberations, acquitted Lloyd of prisoner abuse.

Milwaukee County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern had requested jail time for Lloyd, and the victim, in a letter to the court, suggested it be a year.

Lloyd's attorney, Steven Kohn, said Lloyd, a 20-year veteran officer who was fired over the incident and suffered the public humiliation of the video's repeated broadcast, has no probationary needs and poses no threat to the community.

Circuit Judge Glenn Yamahiro did impose 45 days at the House of Correction, but stayed the jail term in favor of the community service and fine, meaning Lloyd could still go to jail if he failed to pay the fine and do the service.

At trial, the jury had to decide whether Lloyd was establishing control over a resisting subject or inflicting punishment for persistent, vile verbal aggression when he slammed Alejandro Lafreniere into a booking room wall in June. Lafreniere, 28, admitted during his testimony that he had said "inappropriate" things to Lloyd. Lafreniere did not suffer serious injury.

Lafreniere's attorney, Jonathan Safran, said he thought Lloyd would get at least some jail time.

"I'm just concerned about the message it sends to other officers," he said after Friday's hearing. Lafreniere did not attend.

Yamahiro told Lloyd that, if not for the video, the case probably would not even have been charged, and certainly no conviction would have occurred. He said that if Lloyd was an average citizen and punched out Lafreniere for the things he said, most people would say Lafreniere had it coming.

"But when you've got the uniform on, it's a different situation," Yamahiro said.

Both Yamahiro and Lovern noted repeatedly that the vast majority of police officers use their power and authority wisely and within the rules, and that when an incident like Lloyd's, even though out of character for him, gets wide media attention, it erodes public confidence in law enforcement.

"In that respect, the case is bigger than you," Yamahiro said.

Kohn said Lloyd likely would appeal his conviction on the ground of a pretrial ruling made by Yamahiro that limited what evidence Lloyd could introduce about Lafreniere's behavior at the scene of a domestic violence incident where he was first arrested. That additional information, Kohn said, would have buttressed Lloyd's perception of the kind of threat Lafreniere posed later at the station.

Lovern argued that Lloyd's shove was simply payback for Lafreniere's racist insults and threats to harm Lloyd and his family.