Lesser charge follows training
Ex-officer was involved in First Street encounter
Luke Deer, the only Albany police officer to face criminal charges in connection with the pummeling three years ago of Black men at a home on First Street, was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea to misdemeanor assault after completing a treatment program. Deer pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a violation, earlier this week as part of a plea deal he reached with prosecutors a year ago. In exchange for pleading guilty to the assault charge and resigning as a police officer, Deer was allowed to withdraw his plea to the misdemeanor and plead to the violation once he finished a treatment program at the Veterans Administration.
“All the conditions of the plea were satisfied by the defendant and he was therefore permitted to withdraw his prior plea and enter a plea of guilty to disorderly conduct,” the Albany County district attorney’s office said in a written statement. “He resigned from the Albany Police Department and successfully completed his course of treatment at the VA, as required by the terms of the plea.”
Before his May 12, 2021, guilty plea, Deer, who served in the Marines in Afghanistan and Iraq, had been undergoing treatment related to his service, according to people familiar with the case.
While Deer agreed to resign from the police department, nothing in his plea deal with prosecutors prevents him from seeking future employment in law enforcement.
In his plea, Deer, now 32, admitted that he “struck (Armando) Sanchez with his fist, recklessly causing injury consisting of bruising and abrasions about the face and head,” according to court documents. Sanchez and two other men said they were beaten by police who on March 16, 2019, had responded to 523 First St. for reports of a loud party.
Deer, who joined the department in 2014, was accused of using a baton to strike Sanchez in the face and head in an unjustified attack. At first, he was charged with felony assault and official misconduct, a misdemeanor.
Police arrested Sanchez and two other men, Lee Childs and Mario Gorostiza. Charges against them were dropped after a phone video showing the officers kicking Gorostiza was sent to police officials, which led to an investigation. In the wake of the incident, the city tried to fire two other officers, but both still work for the department.