A federal judge sentenced former Bordentown Township, New Jersey police chief Frank Nucera to 28 months in jail for lying to FBI agents investigating a hate crimes incident in which Nucera punched a handcuffed teenage Black boy, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler said Nucera now has “a lifetime status as a convicted felon, a racist, a liar.” Kugler said he wanted to send a strong message to deter other police officers around the country and the public that such misconduct as found in the Nucera case would not be tolerated.
In 2019, a jury convicted Nucera of lying to FBI agents who were investigating a complaint that Nucera handcuffed a Black teenage suspect at a Bordentown hotel in 2016. The jury deadlocked on two additional charges relating to hate crimes, for which Nucera is facing retrial. Officers from his department cooperated with the investigation, wearing wires that recorded him using racial slurs.