CAPE MAY COUNTY — Wildwood police officer convicted of kicking two handcuffed suspects has been resentenced to five years in prison, according to a report on PressofAtlanticCity.com.
David Romeo, 43, will have to serve one year and five days before he is eligible for parole. He has spent 30 days in the Atlantic County jail since an August decision that denied his request for a new trial, the report said.
The state appellate panel instead ordered that the sentence be revisited.
Romeo was convicted of official misconduct for kicking two handcuffed car burglary suspects in the head as they lay on the ground in a parking lot in 2007.
Romeo testified he kicked the men because he saw a weapon. But three other officers said no weapon was present when the suspects were kicked.
When Romeo appealed his original five-year sentence in 2010, prosecutors appealed a judge's decision not to make the former sergeant ineligible for parole, the Press of Atlantic City reported. The officer was allowed to remain free.