HACKENSACK, NJ – “This is a huge tragedy for everyone,” criminal defense attorney Robert G. Stahl told the court at the January 2016 sentencing for a former Marine and Hasbrouck Heights police officer who pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and other charges in connection with the death of a long-time friend.

Over the four years he was jailed before sentencing, the defendant has expressed his “regret and deep remorse” for the “great harm” he caused to so many people, and he has tried “to move forward and make up for it in some fashion,” Stahl said.

The former police officer, who spent nine years on the Hasbrouck Heights department before retiring on disability, had been indicted on murder, criminal weapons possession, and hindering apprehension charges.

He pleaded guilty in September 2015 to aggravated manslaughter and other charges. He could have faced up to 50 years in a New Jersey State prison, but Stahl worked intensively with prosecutors to arrive at a negotiated 25-year sentence that the court imposed.

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Video Clip: Former Hasbrouck Heights Police Officer is Represented at His Arraignment by Criminal Defense Attorney Robert G. Stahl

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