New Jersey cop gets probation in assault on BC hockey player
A New Jersey police office will serve two years of probation after pleading guilty to assault and battery on a Boston College hockey defenseman — a punishment the victim’s family says lets the cop off easy.
“I was pushed and ultimately punched from behind,” Kevin Lohan said on the stand Tuesday. “The next thing you know I was in the hospital for three days. I came in with no metal in my face and I left with three pieces of metal that’ll be there for the rest of my life. He’s a police officer. … He should know better than to act the way that he did.”
“It’s been very emotional,” said Richard Lohan, Kevin’s father, outside the courtroom after the hearing. “We have been incredible supporters of law enforcement. I raised my children to respect police and servicemen. … It goes back to the fact that it is a police officer who instigated the whole ordeal and for him not to be charged with a felony is very unsettling.”
Daniel Hunt, 27, of Barrington, N.J., an officer of the Haddon Heights Police Department, pleaded guilty to shoving then 24-year-old Kevin Lohan at a Domino’s Pizza in the Fenway on Jan. 19. That night Hunt and his friend, Ian Salerno, 29, of Philadelphia, had allegedly gone to a Philadelphia Sixers vs. Boston Celtics game where they were allegedly unruly and ended up at the Domino’s Pizza.
Hunt pushed Lohan, a 6-foot-5 graduate student from Cold Springs Harbor, N.Y., and then Salerno allegedly came from behind and sucker-punched Lohan in the jaw.
Lohan was rushed to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where permanent metal plates were put in his cheek and jaw, which had to be wired shut for three weeks.
Judge Rosalind Miller con- tinued the case without a finding despite Assistant District Attorney Judith Lyons calling for the court to enter a guilty finding. Hunt was placed on two years’ probation at Suffolk County Superior Court and ordered to pay restitution of $2,618 to cover the victim’s out-ofpocket medical expenses, complete 100 hours of community service for a nonprofit and stay off drugs and alcohol.
If Hunt abides by these orders during the two-year period, his case will be dismissed, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.
Meanwhile, Salerno has been indicted for aggravated assault and battery in connection with the incident and faces trial Feb. 11, 2019.
Superior Court Judge Rosalind Miller reprimanded Hunt, who she says should have known better.
“I watched this video over and over again,” Miller said. “Mr. Lohan and his friends were doing absolutely nothing wrong. I think you did instigate it. … You’re a police officer. You should know better. You should have been the peacemaker. You should have been the person who stepped in and protected him from your friend.”