“PATERSON — Officer Roger Then has been arrested by FBI agents in connection to the beating of a suicidal hospital patient while the unnamed victim was in a wheel chair and in a hospital bed, according to court documents.
Then is accused of making a video recording of the beating, which was allegedly carried out by an unidentified city police officer, according to a federal affidavit establishing probable cause for Then’s arrest. He is also accused of omitting the beating from his report.
“Defendant Then and Police Officer 1 omitted material facts from the police report,” the affadavit states. “Namely (a) Police Officer 1 punched the Victim and defendant Then grabbed the victim by the neck and pushed him to the ground.”
Then’s arrest is the latest in an ongoing federal probe of the city police. Three other officers have been arrested on unrelated charges in recent months.
Then is facing charges of misprison of felony, which is a charge that is filed for not reporting a crime. He is also facing charges of conspiracy to commit civil rights violations. “