FALL RIVER — Former Fall River police officer Nicholas Hoar was sentenced in a Boston federal court today to serve 33 months in prison for striking a man in custody in the head with a metal baton then lying about it in police reports. 

Hoar, 37, was convicted in February of assaulting William Harvey, 58, as he and other officers were placing Harvey in a jail cell after his arrest on a misdemeanor domestic complaint on Dec. 21, 2020.  

“I believe he deserved more because he abused his power,” Harvey said in an interview after Hoar's sentencing.

Harvey had been charged with a felony count for allegedly assaulting Hoar and spent over 200 days in jail before the Bristol County District Attorney's office dropped the charge when Hoar was indicted in November 2022.

Read moer from Jo C. Goode at heraldnews.com.