Cop Gets Probation for Severely Beating Man in a Bar

You or I might not have got off so easy

A 32-year-old former Altoona police officer who helped beat up a bar patron nearly three years ago and then participated in a cover-up said Wednesday during his sentencing hearing, "I should have come forward and said what happened."

Eric R. Kriner chronicled for Blair County Judge Timothy M. Sullivan his descent into a "dark place," suggesting suicide was on his mind for a time, thanking God for helping him get through the lengthy ordeal and pleading with the judge not to disrupt his attempts at new life with his wife, Sue, and his children by sending him to prison for a long period of time.

Sullivan placed Kriner, now of Brockport, on probation for four years for simple assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice, saying to him, "Nobody—not judges, lawyers, police officers or government officials—are above the law."