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A Howard Beach man will face 18 years in prison for his involvement in the brutal beating of an off-duty New York City police officer in 2009, the Queens district attorney’s office said Friday.

Joseph J. Meyer, 26, was convicted of first-degree gang assault and first-degree assault on Nov. 17 for attacking off-duty Police Officer Damien Bartels in the early hours of Aug. 30, 2009, Queens DA Richard Brown said. A minor traffic altercation quickly escalated into a full-on attack during which Meyer and several others, who have not been arrested, hurt the off-duty cop.

“The defendant viciously attacked and seriously injured an off-duty police officer, his actions sparked by words uttered at a traffic incident,” Brown said. “The crimes for which he was justly convicted are serious ones, and under the circumstances, the lengthy prison sentence imposed is warranted.”

Meyer, a construction worker of 153-37 78th St. in Howard Beach, was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday after a six-day trial before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph A. Zayas. He confessed in a written statement to having been involved in the altercation.

Anthony Lombardino represented Meyer at his sentencing and did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The assault left Bartels hospitalized with a shattered nose, two broken eye sockets, a broken jaw and shifted teeth. He was operated on in an 11-hour surgery to have titanium rods placed in his eye sockets and titanium plates in his face. A second surgery also repaired his septum because he was having trouble breathing, the district attorney said.

“Police officers are human and are not immune from being crime victims themselves,” Brown said.

According to trial testimony, Bartels was blocked by a group of people in the road while stopped at a red light in Long Island City with girlfriend Jennifer Menjivar and cousin Richard Sacco in his car. While waiting for the people to move, Sacco rolled down the back window where he sat to tell the group to get out of the road.

The group exchanged words with Sacco before Bartels drove around the several vehicles in his way, but his 2009 black Lincoln MKS was stopped again after about a block when Meyer and his group boxed them in with their vehicles near 30th Street and 48th Avenue.

Bartels reportedly noticed Meyer get out of the white car blocking his way and the officer stepped outside his car to mitigate the situation and protect his passengers. He was then struck in the head and fell to the ground before being beaten by Meyer and about six others, trial testimony said.

After the beating, the group tried opening Bartels’ locked car doors, which ultimately led to the police’s discovery of Meyer’s fingerprints on the vehicle.

Bartels was treated at Manhattan Hospital and has since returned to the New York City Police Department, the district attorney said.

The website Freejosephmeyer.com and corresponding Facebook page have since been launched by friends and family members to collect donations and garner support for Meyer’s freedom.

©2012 Community Newspaper Group