A federal judge sentenced a former Cook County correctional officer Thursday to two years in prison for lying to the FBI about his assault of an inmate nearly three years ago.
James Micetich admitted last August that he lied to the feds in July 2014 as they pursued allegations that he threw a Cook County jail inmate against a wall in May 2014 and then, after the inmate fell, punched the inmate in the eye.
Micetich left the inmate with a broken eye socket and a boot print on his back, the feds say. When the FBI questioned Micetich, he said he didn’t know anything about it.
Micetich’s attorney, Robert Nemzin, wrote in court papers that Micetich feared being bitten by the inmate because he had been bitten once before by an inmate with HIV. Micetich continued to insist, as recently as January, that his assault of the inmate was justified.
But in court Thursday, Micetich admitted to the judge he knew he was in the wrong as soon as he swung his fist.
“I let a lot of people down,” Micetich said in a tearful speech before the judge handed down the sentence.
Micetich added that, had the inmate been in the courtroom Thursday, “I would want to apologize to him.”
U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. said he found it “completely intolerable” that Micetich tried to cover up his wrongdoing. He said Micetich’s sentence should send a message to law enforcement that “their otherwise commendable service does not excuse their violations of the law.”
Since the incident, Micetich has enrolled at Triton College as part of an operating engineer apprentice program. He has also worked as a part-time manager at a restaurant in Chicago, taking leftover food to the homeless on Lower Wacker Drive.
