A Brooklyn police officer will spend just one day in jail for fabricating assault charges against a suspect in Sunset Park, according to the borough’s top cop.
“This defendant, a former police officer, admitted to the disturbing conduct of falsely charging an individual with a crime he did not commit,” said District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun sentenced 34-year-old Michael Bergmann to 24-hours prison time, and four years probation, following his guilty plea to perjury and official misconduct charges, from when he accused a man of attempting to mow the officer and his patrol partner down with a car in February, 2019, according to prosecutors.
The officer pulled his police car alongside another vehicle on 65th Street near Second Avenue, which was occupied by a burglary suspect who Bergmann allegedly recognized, investigators said.
Bergmann later filed in grand jury testimony that the suspect then threw the car into reverse and nearly struck his partner, before driving forward — forcing Bergmann to dive to the ground in a desperate attempt to avoid a collision, Gonzalez’s office said.
The cop also testified that he sustained minor cuts and bruises, resulting from his fall, authorities said.
Authorities caught up with the alleged fugitive two days later and slapped him with a slew of charges, including attempted assault on a police officer and reckless endangerment — which could have landed him up to seven years in prison, according to Gonzalez’s office.
Nearly five months after the alleged incident, however, prosecutors obtained surveillance footage from the scene, which showed the driver pull off — without ever coming close to either boy in blue, the District Attorney’s office said.
A grand jury indicted Bergmann in June, and he pled guilty in November.
Prosecutors with the District Attorney’s Office had asked for the harsher sentence of six months behind bars — but Justice Chun overruled that request, and gave the now-fired cop just 24-hours, plus probation.
