(California) Ex cop gets 30 years behind bars

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(06-08) 15:21 PDT SANTA ROSA --

A former Santa Rosa police officer was sentenced Tuesday to more than 30 years in state prison for robbing four armored cars in a spree that netted more than $400,000.

Robert Starling, 35, of Windsor, who worked for the department in two stints from 2000 to 2006, was convicted by a Sonoma County Superior Court jury in May of two robberies in Santa Rosa and one each in Novato and Sebastopol.

The jury also convicted Starling of two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery and found that he was armed with a firearm during the course of the conspiracies, dissuading a witness through force and fear, wearing a mask and providing false reports to law enforcement.

Jurors also convicted him of conspiring to commit a fifth robbery in Rohnert Park, but he decided not to go through with the holdup because of a large police presence in the area, prosecutors said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/08/BA1L1DRQJQ.DTL&feed=rss.ba

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HA! Another cop sinking to criminal levels. Now it's time for Johannes Mehserle to face the big house...

30 years is excessive and cruel, not to mention expensive and stupid. When will we return to reasonable sentencing in this country?