A Queens judge lashed into a cop-hating career criminal who opened fire on a heavily decorated NYPD sergeant, sentencing him to 55 years to life after disdainfully chiding, “You will never step foot outside of a prison before you die.” “Who are you, to take a gun, and try to kill a New York City Police Officer?” Judge Gregory Lasak jeered at shooter John Thomas Wednesday before a courtroom packed with cops, many of who smiled at the jab. His intended target, Sgt. Craig Bier, sat front and center, beaming.
“It’s all about choices, and you made some very bad choices” Lasak told the failed cop-killer, who had earlier reiterated his innocence when asked if he had anything to say. “You have nothing else to say?” Lasak asked, incredulously. “I’m innocent – – I have nothing else to say,” the convicted felon responded. “Instead of telling me you’re innocent, you would have been better off asking for the minimum sentence,” Judge Lasak spat back, his voice rising. “The proof against you is overwhelming!” Bier stood for his victim impact statement before his girlfriend and pews lined with fellow cops and delegates from the Sergeants Benevolence Association, who have stood behind him since the shooting.
“Can I call you Johnny?” the sergeant asked disdainfully as he addressed Thomas. “I never think of you, except when I’m putting on a bathing suit and I see the scars on my legs, or when I’m shoveling snow,” he admitted. “You could have gotten away, but you shot me, and that tells me two things,” the still active sergeant said. “The first is that you’re an idiot– and you made a bad choice — and the second is that you’re a menace to my brothers and sisters in blue, and to everyone else in New York City. ”
Thomas — who had 11 priors — was convicted on charges of attempted murder after taking four shots at Bier and hitting him in the legs during a foot chase in August 2012. He then skipped town, leading authorities on a manhunt that spanned five states before he finally turned himself in a month later. Throughout the trial, his attorney Ikiesha Al Shabazz unsuccessfully argued that “evidence tampering” was responsible for framing her client.