A New Jersey police officer was sentenced for drug dealing and a videotaped violent attack on a man who had just attempted suicide, authorities said Friday.
Ruben McAusland, a 27-year-old formerly with the Paterson Police Department, was sentenced to 66 months behind bars this week after pleading guilty to intent to distribute narcotics and deprivation of civil rights under color of law, according to federal prosecutors in Newark.
The authorities this week released cellphone video of McAusland, filmed by his then-partner Roger Then, attacking a man at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Paterson on March 5, 2018.
The two officers had responded to an attempted suicide call and met the man at the hospital, officials said. McAusland later admitted he punched the man in the face in the waiting room, officials said.
The assault continued in the man's room. In the cellphone video shot by Officer Then, the man could be heard telling the officers: "You're a b-tch."
"Right here, you see my cheek?" the prone patient challenged. "Do it."
That's when McAusland put on white hospital gloves and violently slapped him hard across the face twice, the video showed.
The man already had cuts on his face and McAusland's slaps were so violent, that blood appeared to go flying onto the white bed sheets by the victim's shoulder.