Former Bethlehem police officer Christopher Hughes was sentenced today to five years probation for possessing a fake police identification card.
Hughes, who had been on long-term medical leave before being terminated following his May felony conviction, was using the card in hopes of obtaining a police retirement badge from Galls, a Kentucky-based company that sells equipment, supplies and clothing for emergency responders. The former officer was relieved of his badge and department firearm in 2009, when he also made headlines for going public with allegations of Police Chief Louis Corsi’s now infamous racial slur.
Police were alerted to the situation when a supply company contacted the Bethlehem Police Department to confirm Hughes’s status with the department. State Police conducted an investigation that included the execution of a search warrant at Hughes’s home.
“Companies that supply materials and equipment to law enforcement go through painstaking efforts to ensure their merchandise does not fall into the hands of those not entitled to them. The defendant in this instance went to great lengths to fool the supply company and his department, but he could not fool the jury,” said Albany County District Attorney David Soares in a statement.
Hughes also has an ongoing lawsuit against the Town of Bethlehem and Corsi seeking a clean record and compensation for facing retaliatory action for “expressing protected speech.”