Judge Reduces Former Officer’s Assault Charge : Sentence: Ex-Gardena lieutenant’s offenses are declared misdemeanors. He is ordered to pay $500 fine.

When he sentenced a former Gardena police lieutenant convicted of assaulting a handcuffed man with a stun gun, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Wednesday reduced the felony charges against the ex-officer to misdemeanors and ordered him to pay a $500 fine.

Judge Eric E. Younger handed down the sentence Friday to Jeffrey Finley after a jury found him guilty earlier this month of excessive force and assault with a Taser gun. Finley could have been sentenced to up to three years, but the prosecutor argued only for retaining felony charges on his record, as well as ordering probation and community service hours, “so he’d be required to do something.”

“I am somewhat dismayed because I don’t think the defendant received any punishment,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Eloise Phillips. Younger, who said in court that the lack of physical harm to the victim was a factor in his decision, later declined to discuss his sentence.

William Hadden, Finley’s attorney, contended that his client had been wrongfully convicted and is considering an appeal. “I don’t think he deserved anything,” he said of the sentencing.

Finley, now 42, was one of six officers who struggled with Richard Marone, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound man arrested during a domestic dispute in October, 1991. Gardena police fired Finley, a 20-year veteran, after the incident, but Hadden said Finley is contesting the dismissal.