The convicted cop cried as he left the courtroom. He pulled his wife close and sobbed into her shoulder.

“Six months!” in federal prison, said Roger Then, 30, the former Paterson cop, standing in the hallway of Newark’s federal courthouse. “I’m so sorry, babe. I’m so sorry.”

The sentence surprised Then. It surprised his lawyer.

It surprised even Judge William Walls, who issued it.

Justice, when it’s true, happens like that.

“Mr. Then, I hadn’t appreciated fully what you have admittedly done,” said Judge Wells, coming as close to an admission of error as a federal judge ever makes in court.

This was not a big case, and Roger Then is not a big criminal. He did not lead the two-year scheme of shakedowns, armed robberies, drug dealing and secret beatings that eight police officers are accused of, which is the Paterson Police Department’s latest crisis.

Then’s contribution was passive. He helped his partner, Ruben McAusland, beat a patient in the hallway of St. Joseph's Regional Hospital. Later he used his cell phone to film McAusland beating the same patient so hard, doctors had to rebuild the victim’s face with a steel plate.

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In the police report he signed that night, Then never mentioned the beatings, which came to light only after FBI agents investigating other corrupt Paterson cops found the video on Then’s phone.

Then pleaded guilty in December to recording the attack. In the federal courthouse in Newark this week, he faced up to six months in prison.

When the hearing started, however, it seemed likely Then would walk free. In his remarks to the judge, he was contrite. He had served in the Iraq war as a member of the Army National Guard. After getting fired from the Paterson police, he enrolled in counseling for his alcohol abuse, and found work as a repairman to provide for his three young children.

Besides, other cops have been accused of so much worse. In Cleveland in 2014, police officer Timothy Loehmann shot and killed Tamir Rice, an unarmed 12 year-old, within two seconds of his police cruiser stopping near the boy. Last June, East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld shot 17-year-old Antwon Rose II in the back as Rose ran away. Rose was unarmed.

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Both Rosfeld and Loehmann were found not guilty. Neither went to prison.

In a country where police officers have the power, with limitations, to use deadly force against anyone they view as a threat to themselves or the public, even Judge Walls came into his courtroom in Newark this week expecting Then to receive nothing harsher than a stern lecture.

“His exposure’s not that great,” Walls said of Then’s involvement in crimes committed by other cops. “He was not the person involved to any great extent” in the scam.

Then Rahul Agarwal, the assistant U.S. Attorney in the case, rose to speak. The task before him, to challenge the conclusions of a federal judge in open court, was a delicate one.

Rather than prevent the beating, Agarwal said, Then lied about it. He signed a false police report, and never reported the attack to his bosses or the FBI. That’s more than passive observance, Agarwal argued. Then’s non-actions covered up the attacks and enforced the code of silence that protects bad cops like Ruben McAusland, who has admitted to crimes including dealing drugs from his police cruiser while dressed in his police uniform.

Sending Then to prison would send a message that cover-ups shred public trust in police just as much as beating an unarmed suicide patient in a wheelchair.

“We are asking for a six-month sentence, which is atypical,” because his office normally seeks probation in such a case, Agarwal said. “This crime is serious. Roger Then is here because he did not report what he saw.”

The judge interrupted the prosecutor.

“You changed my mind,” Walls said before turning to Then. “You’re going to jail today because you let us, society, down. I do this to thwart any desire by others in a similar position to emulate your nonactivity.”

An untold story

This is a story neither police unions nor their critics like to tell. It’s not the story of a guilty cop getting away with murder, or an innocent cop getting railroaded.

It’s the story of a cop being held accountable for his admitted crimes.

It’s the story of the justice system working.

Then’s arrest happened after a new system used by Paterson Police Department’s internal affairs division flagged unusually high numbers of citizen complaints against officers Eudy Ramos and Jonathan Bustios, who often left their posts in quiet neighborhoods to make arrests in the Fourth Ward, an area east of downtown where drug sales are rampant.

Paterson Police Chief Troy Oswald asked the FBI to investigate.

"This started as our investigation," Oswald said of the FBI. "The FBI investigation would not have happened without us."

That's a police chief behaving as he should, said Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and the nation’s leading expert on police crime. Most police departments have no internal system to sniff out bad cops, Stinson said. And in many cases, police supervisors hide and abet crimes by their officers.

“That’s something to be very proud of,” Stinson said of the Paterson department’s handling of the case. “That would suggest to me that these are rogue officers, and the whole department is not part of this behavior.”

The scandal may also suggest ways that Paterson can still improve. Several of the officers named so far in the scandal often worked together on the same late-night shift. To minimize opportunities for bad cops to band together, Stinson said, it’s better to rotate many officers though each shift, especially at night.

The plot by McAusland and others to shakedown drug dealers also may suggest a wide gulf between people and the police in Paterson, Stinson said. Training, community meetings and events to bring the two sides together may reduce the likelihood of future abuses.

“That’s the way it is in many departments, that you’re either one of us or you’re not,” Stinson said. “When they say they’re just drug dealers, it’s a rationalization used to justify unethical and illegal behavior by police officers.”

'We will be OK'

If Judge Walls hoped to surprise police officers into paying attention to these problems, he succeeded. When he changed his mind about Then’s sentence, the former cop turned and gave his wife a long look in the eye. Still standing, he started to shake as he cried.

“I’m gonna lose my job! The house! Everything!” Then said to his wife after they left the courtroom.

“It’ll be OK," Then’s wife said. “We’ll be OK."

It’s true. Six months in prison for a former cop is a big deal. But eventually Roger Then and his family will be OK. Thanks to a gutsy federal prosecutor and a federal judge humble enough to change his mind, so will we.

Email: maag@northjersey.com