Joe Malinconico

Paterson Press

PATERSON — Roger Then, the ex-city police officer who pleaded guilty to recording a video of his partner’s attack on a suicide patient at a hospital emergency room, was sentenced to six months in federal prison Tuesday in Newark.

Then’s lawyer, John McGovern, had asked United States Judge William Walls to give the convicted cop probation. Then – a 29-year-old Army National Guardsman with three children - cast blame for the crime on his rogue partner, Ruben McAusland, who was sentenced to prison last week.

“I dreaded going to work,” Then said during the sentencing about his relationship with McAusland. “Since he was my senior officer, I had to do whatever he said, no questions asked.”

McGovern said his client had tried to get assigned to another partner. Then claimed he did not know that McAusland was going to attack the patient in a private hospital room when he started filming the incident. He said he recorded the scene because of what he called an “absurd” argument between his partner and the patient.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Agarwal urged the judge not to buy Then’s explanation, pointing out that Then moments earlier had seen McAusland punch the victim in a waiting area. Agarwal said the convicted cop should get the maximum six-month term under federal sentencing guidelines because he never reported the assault.

That argument persuaded Walls, who said he initially was inclined to give Then a lesser penalty but decided to go with the maximum sentence because of his status as a police officer.

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“You’re going to jail because you let us – society – down,” Walls said to Then.

“You cannot hide behind a wall of non-revelation because you are part of a group of those that possess blue blood,” the judge said. “You have to pay the price so hopefully others won’t do what you did.”

Then’s wife, who was sitting in the courtroom, broke into tears when the judge announced the sentence. Then is scheduled to report for prison on July 15.

“I should have never allowed McAusalnd to hit the patient in the hospital,” Then said during the proceeding.

The victim, Andrew Casciano, filed a written statement with the court saying the assault still haunts him.

“Ever since I got punched in the face and abused at the hospital I have been having a very hard time,” Casciano said in the statement, which was released to the news media by his lawyer, Steven Greene.

“The officers who abused me have engraved a negative memory that haunts me throughout the day,” Casciano said.

During the sentencing, Then said he didn’t report the attack because he was “afraid” of what his fellow officers would think of him for “telling on his partner."

But Lt. Dalton Price, the second-in-command in Paterson’s Internal Affairs division, said during a subsequent phone interview, discounted Then’s assertions about peer pressure to keep quiet about a partner’s crimes.

“Absolutely not,” said Price. “That is not the culture in the Paterson police department. We have to do the right thing. We cannot allow someone’s civil rights to be violated. We’re sworn to protect the public.”

Then also admitted during his guilty plea last December to participating in the assault by grabbing the patient while he was in a wheelchair and pushing down, and then covering up the attack by filing false police reports. At the time of his guilty plea, federal officials said Then faced a maximum of three years in prison for his crime. But the maximum penalty was reduced by on sentencing reports compiled during the past three months, officials said.

Casciano suffered a fractured eye socket from McAusland’s blows and had to undergo surgery to have his face reconstructed, authorities said. Casciano has filed a legal notice of a $4 million lawsuit against the city.

Then’s partner, Ruben McAusland, was sentenced last week to 66 months in federal prison. In addition to the hospital assault, McAusland admitted selling heroin, cocaine and marijuana, in some instances while on duty, in uniform, and from his marked police vehicle.

Then has not been named in any of the drug dealing charges. The two officers were terminated from the Paterson police department last year after their guilty pleas. They are among six Paterson cops arrested as part of an FBI probe that started at the end of 2017.

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The other four officers have been accused of making illegal traffic stops and then taking cash from the vehicles’ occupants. One of those four, Jonathan Bustios, pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing. Charges are pending against the other three – Daniel Pent, Eudy Ramos and Matthew Torres.

Federal authorities have said in court papers that a seventh cop was part of the shakedown conspiracy and has agreed to be a confidential witness in the case. Authorities have not revealed his name.

Price, the Internal Affairs officer, said the police department’s early warning system identified some of the officers as problems, prompting Paterson to ask for the FBI’s intervention.

“We knew we had problems that needed to be fixed,” Price said, “and we knew we needed help.”