He paused, then continued. "I know there are officers who work difficult shifts, make hard decisions, and go home wondering whether they did enough to help someone. This case is not a judgment of every officer who wears a uniform. It is a judgment of what happens when one officer treats the uniform as permission to disregard the limits that give it legitimacy. Those limits protect the community, and they protect honorable officers, too."
Puit's attorney argued for a sentence that recognized the absence of serious bodily injury and the possibility of rehabilitation. Webb urged the judge to consider the deliberate nature of the conduct and the public responsibility Puit had misused. Judge Odum listened to both sides, reviewed the sentencing factors, and then imposed a term of nine years in state custody on the combined convictions, with the sentence structured under the applicable criminal statutes. She also entered orders addressing restitution and the legal consequences of the conviction through separate proceedings.
Puit heard the number without moving. Nine years. He had spent eleven years wearing a badge and had assumed those years placed him beyond the reach of consequences that applied to other people. Now a judge was explaining exactly how long he would be removed from ordinary life, and no one in the room was willing to negotiate the number privately in a hallway.
Judge Odum did not deliver a triumphant speech. She told Puit that authority had been entrusted to him to protect the public and that the jury had found he used it unlawfully. She acknowledged the seriousness of depriving a person of freedom, including the defendant, and emphasized that the sentence was imposed through the same process available to every accused person. The restraint of her language made the judgment feel more final than anger would have.
As officers escorted Puit from the room, he looked back toward the gallery. Raymond met his eyes without satisfaction. He did not want Puit to suffer for entertainment, and he did not consider the loss of a man's freedom a victory to celebrate. He wanted the next citizen confronted by a patrol car to receive the lawful consideration that had been missing from his own driveway.
Outside the courthouse, Sandra slipped her arm through his. The rain had left dark patches across the limestone steps. "How do you feel?" she asked. Raymond considered the question as he watched people move past the security barriers. "Like something that should have happened finally happened," he said. "And like there's a great deal left to do before it changes anything for the next person."
Henry, Malik, and Jerome were waiting near the bottom of the steps. They did not form a circle for the cameras or attempt a carefully staged photograph. Henry simply shook Raymond's hand and said that, after four years, he no longer felt foolish for having filed his complaint. Malik told him he was thinking about applying for a new supervisory position at work, something he had hesitated to do because of the old incident. Jerome said he had begun speaking to his students again about the importance of public institutions doing what they promised.