Ex-officer gets prison for breaking arrested man’s nose

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – A former Massachusetts police officer has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for elbowing a man he had arrested in the face and breaking his nose.

Former Hadley officer Christopher Roeder was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Springfield to a year and two months behind bars and a year of probation.

He was found guilty in February of deprivation of rights under colour of law and falsification of a document.

The 50-year-old Roeder said the victim, Nickolas Peters, clipped him with his rearview mirror while Peters drove through a construction zone in March 2017. The assault occurred in the police station several days later when Roeder spotted Peters again and arrested him. All charges Peters faced were eventually dismissed.

Roeder was fired after he was indicted.