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“Fortunately, cases of this type do not arise often,” Keelaghan said.

She noted that in his victim impact statement, Prince said he is now afraid of most police officers.

“This is a sentiment that is far too common,” the judge said.

She said a suspended sentence with probation or conditional sentence to be served in the community, as proposed by Hepner, wouldn’t adequately address the need to deter similar conduct.

“I find that a term of incarceration is called for,” she said. “Only a term of real incarceration will send a message.”

Othen, 40, was convicted in connection with a foot chase near Glenmore and Macleod trails.

He was chasing after Prince when another officer, with his service weapon drawn, ordered the suspect to the ground.

After Prince got on his stomach and placed his hands behind his head, Othen jumped on his back with both knees, fracturing several ribs and causing one of his lungs to collapse.

The beginning of the incident was captured on a police cruiser’s dashboard camera before the video was turned off.

Once Prince was handcuffed and placed in a police cruiser, Othen dug a car key into his neck behind his ear.

The wound later became infected.

Hepner has scheduled Othen’s appeal for September.

His grounds for appeal include that Keelaghan erred in finding Othen caused the wound behind Prince’s ear and in concluding the officer assaulted the suspect in the initial arrest, given the circumstances leading up to it.

KMartin@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @KMartinCourts