From [HERE] Disgraced Jacksonville police Sgt. Marc Garza has pleaded no contest to a felony charge that he beat a handcuffed drug suspect with a police radio.
Monday's negotiated plea bargain called for a nine-month jail sentence, but it will align concurrently with the nine months Garza already is serving after being convicted of coaching a subordinate officer to write a bogus burglary report in August 2009. The initial setence started about two weeks ago on March 22.
Although that means no additional jail time for Garza, Monday's plea deal adds a two-year probation term and 100 hours of community service after Garza is released.
Circuit Judge Thomas Beverly said he would allow Garza's probation term to transfer to Vermont, so that he can be closer to family. He is serving the nine months in the St. Johns County jail as a safety precaution to keep him away from Jacksonville inmates that he had arrested.
Garza had served for 14 years. He was the leader of an aggressive anti-crime unit, but authorities said he began to take his role too far as others who knew him said the pressure of the role was becoming too much.
Garza was charged with beating drug suspect Somario Atkins, 25, in the head with a heavy, metal portable police radio after Atkins got into a scuffle with other officers in August 2009. Atkins already had been detained when Garza attacked him inside a squad car.
Atkins was sitting handcuffed in the back of a police car when he was beaten in the head, causing a 2-inch laceration, Garza's arrest report said.
Garza's legal troubles have made it impossible for him to become a police officer ever again, Stone said. He had resigned from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office last month after a period of voluntary leave without pay.In return for the no-contest plea to battery, Assistant State Attorney Richard Komando agreed not to pursue a misdemeanor count of official misconduct.
Had he been convicted of the assault charge, Garza could have been sentenced to up to 15 years in state prison. At the outset of his two arrests, Garza's stance that he was innocent - even starting a website to point out his good deeds - backfired.
Komando said he was trying to arrange for a six-month sentence if Garza would plead in both cases. Garza didn't want to cooperate and took the first case to trial in January.