Mr. McAusland pleaded guilty to depriving the patient of his civil rights. He also pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from a crime scene last year and then selling them.
Mr. McAusland was arrested in April after he was accused of making several drug sales to an FBI informant since September 2017. In May, a fellow police officer, Roger Then, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a patient at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson a few months earlier. In the complaint against Mr. Then, an FBI agent wrote that St. Joseph’s surveillance camera captured Mr. McAusland punching the patient, who was in a wheelchair.
A second video, which was taken by Mr. Then using his cellphone, allegedly shows Mr. McAusland put on a pair of hospital gloves and strike the patient, who was lying on his back in a hospital bed, twice across the face.
As a result of the assaults, the patient suffered several injuries to his face, including an eye injury that required surgery.
On June 27, the judge asked Mr. McAusland why he assaulted a total stranger, and he responded, “I lost my temper at the time.”
Mr. McAusland is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 9. He faces up to 10 years in prison for the civil rights charge and up to 40 years in prison on the drug charge, according to nj.com.
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