FILE - In this May 19, 2015 file photo, Wojciech Braszczok, center, is led into court with his face covered in New York. The undercover New York Police Department detective and a co-defendant were acquitted Tuesday, June 9, 2015 of the most serious charges but convicted of lesser crimes for participating in a September, 2013 motorcycle rally that devolved into highway pandemonium as an SUV driver was pulled from his window and beaten bloody in front of his wife and toddler. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) (The Associated Press)
NEW YORK – An undercover New York Police Department detective accused of taking part in a motorcyclists-versus-SUV melee has been acquitted of the most serious charges but convicted of lesser crimes.
Detective Wojciech Braszczok (VOY'-chehk BROOSH'-chahk) and his co-defendant, Robert Sims, said they believed the SUV driver had just struck a biker and fled during the September 2013 rally. A judge on Tuesday found them not guilty of gang assault and first-degree assault but guilty of second-degree assault, coercion, riot and criminal mischief.
Eleven men were indicted. Driver Alexian Lien ran over a motorcyclist, paralyzing him, before he was pulled from his SUV and beaten.
Braszczok says he didn't have a gun or a badge and didn't think anyone would believe he was an officer. He says he didn't intend to harm the driver.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
