VIDEO - Police Chief Benjamin Fox Attacker Sentenced to Seven Years

Russell Stewart entered the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack Friday afternoon shackled and dressed in an orange jumpsuit and awaited his fate. of attempting to disarm a firearm from a law enforcement officer and aggravated assault upon a police officer following a violent 2008 encounter with Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox, Stewart was sentenced to 7 years in prison.

Prior to sentencing several members of Stewart's family and members of his church pled for leniency on his behalf.  But Assistant Prosecutor Ron McCormick argued both the nature of the crime and the victim, a police officer, added significantly to the seriousness of the offense.

"Actions have consequences. A law enforcement officer should never be fighting on asphalt in the dead of night for his life," McCormick said.

Bergen County Superior Judge Edward Jerejian agreed.

"You need to be responsible for your conduct," said Judge Jerejian. "Law enforcement officials have the most difficult job in society. They go out to their jobs and they don't know if they're coming back. The message has to be clear if anyone attempts to disarm a law enforcement official they'll have to face dire consequences."

After the sentencing Chief Fox said he felt the sentence imposed by the judge was appropriate.

"I think it's a completely fair sentence. I'm just glad it's over," Fox said. "But there's nothing celebratory here. I listened to his supporters talk and as I said even in my own statement he's not a man with a long criminal history. He's a man who probably, for various drug and alcohol reasons, committed a crime that day. But the consequences could have turned out to be something much much different from what it turned out to be.  I just want myself and all police officers to be safe."

Stewart's attorney John Weichel unsuccessfully argued for the mandatory minimum sentence of five years.

"I'm disappointed that he received seven years instead of five years," Weichel said. "I think he's genuinely remorseful and has turned his life around. Either way he would have been punished pretty severely."

Chief Fox's Victim Impact Statement:

On September 11, 2008: I came upon a motor vehicle crash. I’ve been on this job long enough to be able to say that I’ve handled thousands of crashes. But this one was different. 

In his opening remarks to the jury, Prosecutor McCormick stated that what started out as a routine accident scene, ended in a fight for my life. He was very correct. 

During this trial we heard testimony about Russell Stewart attempting to take my gun, and we watched a video tape of him doing just that. We heard testimony about what he would have done had he succeeded. 

Fortunately, he was not able to get my weapon. Through a combination of the safety design and strength of my gun holster, and my ability to fend him off, he was not successful. 

Some people may think the penalties for this crime are overly excessive if the police officer is not hurt. I was injured, but not seriously. But that’s only because Russell Stewart was not successful in what he attempted to do to me. Just because he was unsuccessful, that should not overshadow the intent of his actions.

 Yes, I was lucky that something worse did not happen to me, but it’s also not always the way things end. 

On January 7, 1979; I was a rookie patrolman on the job for just slightly over a year. In the days following I went to what probably was the first police office funeral I ever attended. This courtroom is protected by Bergen County Sheriff’s officers. In 1979, one of their fellow officers by the name of Joseph Rybka was guarding a prisoner. A scuffle took place, the officer’s gun was taken from him, and he was killed. 

The attempt to disarm a law enforcement officer is a second degree crime. It has serious penalties for a reason. Had Russell Stewart succeeded that night in 2008, I have every reason to believe that I would have been murdered by my own gun. I would likely have been another police officer killed in the line of duty. It would have happened just like it did to Officer Joseph Rybka.   

Russell Stewart is not a career criminal like this court often sees. He claims that he did what he did because he was high on illegal drugs. Actions have consequences. Serious actions have serious consequences. While his family may mourn his incarceration, better that, than my family and friends mourn and have their lives changed forever if this event had gone differently.

Your Honor, the simple success or failure to forcibly take a police officers gun is the only thing that determines whether he may live, or whether he dies.

Police officers are the line between a civil and a lawless society. And while the vast majority of citizens are in fact civil law abiding individuals, police officers must carry guns to protect society. That firearm is the most dangerous piece of equipment that an officer carries, and that weapon must be protected at all costs.

I believe that penalties serve as not only a punishment for illegal behavior, but also as a deterrent to the future actions of others. With this sentencing, this court has the opportunity to send a message loud and clear that hopefully will serve to protect the lives of law enforcement officers. 

Thank you.