Erie County District Attorney John Flynn would have liked to seen a stricter penalty for a former sheriff's deputy who will be avoiding jail time for beating a Bills fan at a tailgate.

Former Deputy Kenneth Achtyl was convicted of assaulting UB student Nick Belsito during an arrest outside New Era Field in 2017.

The state probation department recommended Achtyl get a conditional discharge, 150 hours of community service, and take anger management classes.

Orchard Park Town Court Justice Jorge de Rosas went along with the conditional discharge, which means Achtyl has to stay out of trouble for a year, and the community service.

The judge did not include the anger management classes, but did throw in a $750 fine.

Flynn says he disagrees with the sentence.

He says jail time was extremely unlikely since it was Achtyl's first offense and he was convicted of three misdemeanor charges.

Flynn says he would like to have seen probation.

Aaron Glazer, Belsito's attorney, said the sentence "was as expected." He added that a civil suit against Achtyl, Howard, the Erie County Sheriff's Office, Erie County and one other deputy is moving forward. 

Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard has criticized Flynn for even charging Achtyl.

Howard was at Achtyl’s sentencing Thursday night.

"His overall performance of his professional career ended unfortunately with a 30 second lapse of inappropriate behavior, but certainly his life and his service a police officer is best described as heroic," Howard said.

"He tried, him and Achtyl's lawyer, they tried to couch it as a 30 second momentary lapse of judgement, well it was more than that," Flynn countered Friday.

Flynn points out Achtyl was also convicted of official misconduct and falsifying business records.

Long after those 30 seconds, Achtyl lied when he filled out his official report about what happened with Belsito.

Flynn said this conviction might not have happened without the body camera footage that captured Achtyl's assault of Belsito.

He said that alone should assure the public if a police officer does something wrong, it's much harder to sweep it under the rug.