Shawn Coughlin tried to cover up attack
BOSTON —A former Massachusetts police officer has been
sentenced to a year and a day in prison for assaulting a handcuffed man in jail
and trying to cover it up.
Former Plymouth officer Shawn Coughlin also was
sentenced Monday in federal court in Boston to a year of supervised release and
a $7,500 fine.
The 47-year-old Coughlin was convicted in February of
deprivation of constitutional rights under color of law and falsifying a record
to impede a federal investigation.
Prosecutors said he assaulted an arrestee in a
Plymouth police holding cell in 2011, hitting the man in the head and kneeing
him in the body. They said Coughlin falsified official police reports on the
matter.
