Short prison stint for smiling cop in bloody NJ hospital attack

PATERSON — A police officer who recorded his corrupt partner beating a suicide patient in a city hospital was sentenced Tuesday to six months in federal prison.

Roger Then, 29, had pleaded guilty to misprision of felony for concealing the civil rights crime committed by Officer Ruben McAusland.

McAusland was sentenced last week to 66 months in prison for dealing drugs and for the bloody attack on the St. Joseph’s Medical Center patient on March 8, 2018.

Instead of protecting the distressed man from his partner, Then smiled into his camera and recorded McAusland striking the patient twice in the face with a gloved hand. The blows splattered blood on the bed and wall of the hospital room. The patient had to undergo an eye surgery as a result of the cop's attack.

Before the patient was placed in the room, McAusland had assaulted him while he was in a wheelchair in the hospital waiting room. Surveillance video captured McAusland pushing the wheelchair with his hands and punching the victim in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. McAusland then picked up the patient by the back of the neck and pushed him to the ground again.

The victim had called police from his home because he was feeling suicidal.

Federal prosecutors said Then and McAusland did not report the violence on their police reports.

The two cops are among six from this city that the FBI has arrested recently.

Other officers have been charged with making traffic stops and robbing people.

Sergio Bichao is deputy digital editor at New Jersey 101.5. Send him news tips: Call 609-359-5348 or email him.