Cop Anthony Abbate Gets Probation, No Jail, For Beating Female Bartender (WATCH SURVEILLANCE VIDEO)

CHICAGO — An off-duty Chicago police officer convicted of pummeling a female bartender half his size was sentenced Tuesday to two years probation and anger management classes for the videotaped attack that appeared worldwide on the Internet and cable news channels.

Cook County Circuit Judge John Fleming also gave Anthony Abbate, 40, a home curfew of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and ordered him to perform 130 hours of community service.

"No one in recent memory ... has done more to tarnish the reputation of the Chicago Police Department than Anthony Abbate," Cook County Assistant State's Attorney LuAnn Snow said Tuesday.

Prosecutors had asked for prison for Abbate -- he could have been sentenced to up to five years behind bars -- but the judge said he didn't see aggravating factors to justify a prison term. The judge said Abbate had a clean record before the incident, did not seriously injure the bartender, and underwent alcohol rehab "and has not had a relapse."

"If I believed sentencing Anthony Abbate to prison would stop people from getting drunk and hitting people, I'd give him the maximum sentence," Fleming said.

Earlier this month, the judge rejected Abbate's claim he acted in self-defense and convicted him of aggravated battery. A tavern security video shows a drunken, 250-pound Abbate punching and kicking the 125-pound Karolina Obrycka as she tended bar in February 2007. The altercation happened after she refused to serve him more drinks.

The video captured a lot of attention as another example of misconduct by Chicago police. Then-Superintendent Phil Cline suddenly announced his retirement shortly after the video surfaced and former FBI official Jody Weis was appointed to the spot with an order to clean up the department's image.

Abbate acknowledged during the trial that he was drunk during the incident. But he said Obrycka pushed him first as she tried to remove him from behind the bar. Obrycka said during the hearing that she continues to suffer psychological wounds, often has nightmares and has trouble trusting people, including her husband.

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Prosecutors and Obrycka said they were disappointed with the sentence. Her attorney, Terry Ekl, said he expected the lawsuit Obrycka filed against Abbate and city to go to trial this year.

Abbate declined comment as he walked out of the courtroom holding his girlfriend's hand.

"He's not a bad man, he did something bad," said his defense attorney, Peter Hickey. He characterized the incident at "one silly, stupid act."

Abbate has been relieved of his duties and pay, Chicago Police Department spokesman Officer Robert Perez said.

The department is looking into "separation proceedings," Perez said. Weis has said he wants Abbate fired.

-ASSOCIATED PRESS

Watch the security camera footage of the beating:

Comments

[HistoryGeek]

Why are you surprised?
Pretty typical.

[nc3]

THIS, right here, is corrupt Chicago/Cook County at.it's.best. This member of CPD's finest DESERVES jail time! And these are the people that Mayor Daley gives guns to.

[Chicago jo]

I have got to get out of here.

[ChicagoEase]

After you all calm down you will realize that Abbate has a police family for generations as does Judge John Fleming. Not a chance that he would find one so closely bonded put in jail.

The judge had what seems like a conflict of interest and if he could have, he would have found the foreign female bartender with the funny accent guilty, not one of his own. A sad day for the judge to punish him so harshly.

[veracity]

there are DOZENS, if not HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS of Americans currently ROTTING in our US GULAG PRISON SYSTEM, put there by Cops FABRICATING FALSE EVIDENCE, and prosecutors submitting PERJUROUS testimony.

Not that I am "anti-cop" - during hurricanes or other natural disasters, thousands of "good cops" are forced to defend public and private property, while millions of other citizens look after (only) their own families or businesses.

But it simply must be said, that ALL cops have to do to obtain convictions in 80%+ of the time, is "throw down" some cocaine or other illegal drugs in a suspects car... ESPECIALLY if you are an out-of-stater pulled over by a trooper or deputy on a lonely stretch of road in the middle of nowhere.

And, as bad or worse than the cops, are the JUDGES and PROSECUTORS who PRESIDE over this AMERICAN GULAG system -

-- WHERE THE HELL is the notion of "EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER LAW" to prevent one state for THROWING SOMEONE AWAY FOR LIFE, for a "crime" (eg marijuana possession) that might get you a traffic citation in another city or state ??

[samjung23]

I think they only plant stuff on someone if they know the person is a drug dealer for sure, but can't prove it. I know all sorts of whiny idiots who have run-ins with the cops and they never have had anything like this happen to them.

Planting stuff on someone is extremely dicey. If they're a user, they should have the stuff in their system. If they're selling, they should have lots of loose, unaccounted for cash and assets they had no way of paying for. You plant it on say, a VP of a company or a Harvard grad student who has no history of doing anything of this nature, it could easily blow back on the cop.

[JoeSchmuk]

"He's not a bad man, he did something bad…." No doubt. And regardless of the psychological underpinnings of his need to beat small women, this officer's actions are more than just "bad," and scream out for more!

When people, let alone officers of the law, can not control themselves and cause bodily damage, it is nothing less than criminally irresponsible to let them wander around the streets unrepentant and cognitively dissonant until they repeat their aggressive tendencies.

I hope the prosecution is appealing this travesty of justice. When people get years for victimless crimes such as possession of a bag of pot, and a drunken policeman beating a woman half his size gets probation, the soul screams out for some kind of just perspective, some restructuring of a system way out of balance.

This gorilla was out of control, saved from killing this woman only by chance intervention. He is not even truly repentant in the matter, as evinced by his consideration that he was somehow provoked because the 125-pound Karolina Obrycka "pushed him first as she tried to remove him from BEHIND THE BAR."

Let's lock this psychopath and others like him (the one who tasered the old lady, the other who viciously assaulted a fifteen year old girl spring to mind) in mandatory therapy groups (Aggressive Sadistic Sociopathic sobs - A.S.S.s) and let them sort out their not so latent pathological tendencies on each other before unleashing them on an unsuspecting public.

[chicagoseven]

Call Judge Fleming's office at [phone] and tell him what you think!

[gialla]

Thank you for posting his number.

[Michele Esposito-Killeen]

Thanks for the number!

[AngusC]

This is blatant corruption and an incompetent judge.
The governor or someone else should come in toss this verdict out and remove this judge from the bench immediately.
I am just in amazement of this decision.

[steamboat]

Hey folks, this is Chicago. So are you surprised? Corrupt thug cops can do anything they want. And who runs Chicago people? The Daley's, the Stroger's, the Burkes, the Jackson's. The liberal democrats run Chicago 100%. So where is this love for the common folks? Oh yeah, since she was a white lady, you won't hear all these so-called civil-rights leaders say a word either. And YOU ALL KNOW I am right.....­....Just pathetic this goon gets off.

[local21]

let me guess.....­.... you're going to go to a teabag party this weekend?

[oldmilitant]

I can't believe you're politicizing this!

[stepintothelight]

Nice try .... take your m e d s !!!

[whocan]

on election day in cook county the ballot has a couple of pages of judges you never heard of up for retention.­.. I will remember John Fleming

[Lala2]

I would like to know more about Judge Fleming's rulings in other cases regarding men assaulting women. Also, shouldn't law enforcement officials be held to an even higher standard than the average citizen? Most policemen I know would be disgusted by this man's behavior as well as this judge's sentence.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

"He's not a bad man, he did something bad," said his defense attorney, Peter Hickey. He characterized the incident at "one silly, stupid act."

__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­___

I would bet this Cretan has many more silly and stupid acts under his belt.Looki­ng at that video it was apparent this wasn't something new to him.His body language shows he was completely out of control and would have attacked anyone coming to the bartenders aid.I'd like to see his personnel files at work and see how many times he was accused of police brutality in the past.Let's open that can of worms.

The judge who sentenced this man to probation should be disbarred and tarred and feathered.­This is a low life that sits on a bench and allows citizens to be beaten to a pulp while they are working.

[samjung23]

This is not the end. This judge may as well resign and go into private practice, his career is over.

This should be overruled. There is no doubt, from the tape, that this man should get some years in prison.

[local21]

I'll bet you dollars to donuts the judge isn't going anywhere.

[Eric8869]

I should be a Chicago police officer! I can beat people and not get put in jail.

I can kill people drunk driving after being at the Martini Ranch and my buddies can take me away until I sober up.

I can go into a bar and beat all the patrons cause they make a joke about my friend crying.

I can hook up suspects to electric devices, torture them and still retire to florida without any charges whatsoever.

Sometimes I am embarassed to be from Chicago.

[RandVictims]

If I was a family member of that bartender, I'd beat him bloody and tazer him for kicks.

[slarabee]

That is exactly what I was going to say. Nothing a baseball bat can't solve.