In fashioning the sentence, Trent said that he had considered Crockett's otherwise unblemished record and the fact that he lost his career, his pension and his good name, according to the attorneys on both sides.
"I respect the judge's decision - he's the judge," Domsky said. "However, we felt that our recommendation of one to two years was a fair sentence based on the conduct of the defendant at the time: an on-duty theft in full uniform."
"Judge Trent did a very credible and fine job of imposing a sentence," said defense attorney L. George Parry. "There isn't a whole lot more that could have been done to him. He could have been sent to prison, but happily he wasn't."
He said that Crockett, who did not make a statement at yesterday's sentencing hearing, always maintained his innocence and continues to do so.
Ramsey, whose effort to root out corrupt cops has been a central theme of his tenure, is out of town until Monday at a police chiefs meeting and could not be reached for comment, a department spokeswoman said.
Crockett's saga began on July 27, 2010, when he and two other officers responded to a burglary alarm at an auto-body shop on Castor Avenue near Adams.
After determining that it was a false alarm, the officers discovered that a door was open at nearby Pat's Cafe.
While the officers investigated inside the bar, Crockett was recorded on a bar security camera taking money from an open safe behind the bar. The other officers were not part of the theft.
Pat's is the same bar where police Officer Gary Skerski was fatally shot trying to stop an armed robber in May 2006.
