Two Bridgeport police officers caught on video using "unreasonable force" by kicking a suspect and shooting him with a Taser while he was on the ground in 2011 have been sentenced to three months in prison and six months of supervised release, according to federal prosecutors.
Elson Morales, 43, and Joseph Lawlor, 41, received their sentences in federal court Thursday. The former officers pleaded guilty last June to deprivation of rights under color of law.
Video posted on YouTube allegedly shows the officers kicking and stomping Orlando Lopez-Soto while arresting him in Beardsley Park after a high-speed chase on May 20, 2011.
"Despite the fact that the individual was on the ground and effectively incapacitated by the initial use of the Taser, Morales deployed the Taser a second time and Lawlor kicked the individual several times," a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office wrote in a news release Thursday.
Bridgeport police Chief Joseph Gaudett Jr. said in a statement after the officers' guilty pleas that his department had cooperated with the federal investigation and that he was "satisfied" that the two officers would no longer work for the department.
