FREEHOLD – Philip Emanuele, the former Eatontown detective accused of raping an informant, sat hunched over and sobbing in a chair in a Monmouth County courtroom on Friday morning.

Emanuele, 33, a married father from Brick, was being sentenced by Judge Thomas F. Scully under a plea agreement he accepted in October by admitting to criminal coercion and tampering with evidence.

Behind him, there were more tears.

On one side of the room were his friends and family, including his wife, who was sitting next to him and rubbing his back before his name was called.

On the other side of the room was Emanuele’s victim, a 24-year-old woman who struggled to speak through tears of her own as she explained to the court, in graphic detail, her claim of how Emanuele used the threat of prison for a theft charge she had pending to take advantage of her.

This culminated with an incident inside a van in a church parking lot, where she alleged Emanuele raped her after she refused to perform oral sex on him.

The victim said she later reported the incident, turned over her semen-stained jeans to police and cooperated on a call to Emanuele – which was listened in on by investigators – where she said he repeatedly told her “I thought you wanted it.”

The woman said she initially agreed to the plea agreement, which would prevent Emanuele from serving jail time, because she would be assured he would never be in a position to take advantage of another person again and that “forgiving was part of [her] recovery process.”

But she said she changed her mind after she read a quote from Emanuele’s attorney Patrick Toscano in the media, in which she said Toscano called the incident a “10-minute lapse of judgment” and implied that he was not convinced that Emanuele was not the victim in this case.

“I felt betrayed and victimized all over again,” said the victim, adding she has suffered from severe emotional and psychological issues since the incident.

“I now feel the only way to properly deal with this man is for him to go to prison,” she said. “I am here to say that Emanuele is a sex offender who singles out unfortunate and vulnerable women with no remorse and must be labeled as such.”

While Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Schweers, of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office’s Professional Responsibility Unit, called Toscano’s comments “ill-advised” and acknowledged the wishes of the victim, he said there was no legal basis to abandon the plea agreement and said he was confident in his request to Scully to continue on with the sentencing under those terms.

Before sentencing Emanuele, Scully gave him an opportunity to speak on his own behalf.

Through a barely audible whimper, the former police officer acknowledged what he had done and said he wanted to go on with his life.

While Scully said that he was not completely convinced that Emanuele would not commit a similar crime in the future, especially after hearing the victim’s detailed testimony, he said he was confident that the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office investigated the case thoroughly and honored the plea agreement, which he called “fair in the interest of justice.”

But Scully did make Emanuele raise his head and look at him as he lectured him about what he called “outrageous conduct and utterly hideous actions.”

“You are not going to jail, as we traditionally know the concept of jail, today. But with many respects, given what your childhood dream was, you’re going to be in jail the rest of your life,” Scully said. “You’re going to have to live with this the rest of your life.”

Scully then sentenced Emanuele to five years of probation for the third-degree criminal coercion charge and three years of probation for the fourth-degree tampering with evidence charge, which will run concurrently. Emanuele will also have to submit to a DNA sample, fingerprinting and will be banned from ever serving as a police officer or any other government employee.

Emanuele already forfeited his job with the Eatontown police department earlier this year, from which he had been suspended without pay as of June. At the time, his annual salary was $114,712, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Yet, Scully still called Emanuele “fortunate,” because of the large amount of support he had from his friends, family and wife even after, Scully said, he broke their hearts with his selfish actions.

It was because of this support system that Scully did not impose additional fines on Emanuele, because he said doing so would further punish those loyal people Emanuele had already hurt.

Following the sentencing, there were more tears outside the courtroom.

The victim and her family were disappointed that the plea agreement was upheld.

And while Emanuele and his supporters were still clearly shaken from the emotional sentencing, Arthur Margeotes, who represented Emanuele at the sentencing said that they were extremely pleased with the outcome.

And despite Scully’s reservations, Margeotes said he was “absolutely” confident that there would not be a reoccurrence with this once-distinguished police officer in the future.

“The only thing that occurred, per the plea, is that he made a verbal request, and nothing beyond that,” Margeotes said.