Former Rochester Police Officer Michael Sippel was sentenced to three years’ probation on his misdemeanor assault conviction.
The former officer was found guilty in May of assaulting Christopher Pate, whom he suspected wrongly of being a burglary suspect. Pate said that despite showing his ID he was beaten and hit with a Taser. The incident was captured on police body cam video.
Judge Thomas Morse gave a lengthy sentencing statement in which he said the case was not about whether officers are authorized to use physical force, but about what Sippel and his partner did in their encounter with Pate. Morse said Sippel suffers from PTSD from his service in Iraq. Morse said it’s not an excuse, but may have led to the “ill advised decisions” that both men made that day.