BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Erie County District Attorney is not pleased with the light sentence given to a former Erie County Sheriff's Deputy.
A judge Thursday sentenced former deputy Kenneth Achtyl to a one-year conditional discharge for reckless assault, official misconduct and falsifying records. Achtyl will also have to serve 150 hours of community service and pay a $250 fine for each count.
A jury convicted Achtyl on those charges after he was caught on camera assaulting a Bills' fan during a tailgate in 2017. He was also accused of falsifying the police report.
District Attorney John Flynn says he disagrees with the judge's sentence
"At the end of the day, I would have liked to have seen probation. That would have been the middle ground here. The judge had three choices, jail, probation, conditional discharge. There's a thing called an unconditional discharge, but in my four years as judge I never used it. So, there are three things here. jail, probation and conditional discharge. I would have liked to have seen probation," said Flynn.
Flynn said his team went into this case knowing that it was likely Achtyl would avoid jail time, but it was still an important case to pursue.
