LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — The former Police Chief of Sunset has escaped jail time for civil rights violations.

Luis Padilla, who pleaded guilty to the charge of deprivation of rights under the color of law in March, was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to five years of probation and six months of home incarceration.

Padilla was charged in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in Lafayette with using unreasonable force against an individual during an investigation and detention.

Prosecutors said that, without legal justification the individual was restrained in handcuffs when Padilla forcefully twisted the individual’s thumb and wrist in a manner intended to cause pain, which resulted in bodily injury to the individual. 

Prosecutors and Padilla’s counsel had both recommended one year of probation as part of a plea agreement. 

The crime carried a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.

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