Mineola, NY – A former soldier of the state of New York declared himself guilty on Wednesday for the positions that he shot and then said falsely that he was injured by an unknown armed man on a Long Island road, which caused a search in the region.
Thomas Mascia agreed to turn six months in jail, followed by five months of probation and a continuous mental health treatment, since he formally changed his guilt declaration during an appearance in the Court in the Nassau County Court in Mineola.
He also agreed, as part of his guilt agreement, to pay $ 289,000 in restitution for extra time costs for officers during the search for three days of a non -existent suspect.
The West Hempstead resident had been accused of official misconduct, manipulating evidence and falsifications of documents. He became a soldier in 2019 and resigned after being suspended without pay, while the State Police launched a criminal investigation into the shooting.
The parents of Mascia, Dorothy and Thomas, also declared themselves guilty on Wednesday of the firearms related to the incident.
Mascia said he was shot on his leg on October 30 by a driver parked on the shoulder of the Southern State Parkway, at a mile of his house.
The shooting caused a massive search when the soldier said that the suspect, who, according to him, was a man of “dark skin,” fled in a car with temporary plates of New Jersey who headed towards New York City.
Instead, prosecutors say, Mascia shot in a local park, hid the gun, led to the road and requested support. They say that the trick was an apparent attempt to get attention and sympathy.
During Wednesday’s procedures, prosecutors asked the former soldier a series of questions that confirmed the sequence of events.
“Did you know that this was a lie and decided to do it anyway?” Jared Rosenblatt of the Nassau County District Prosecutor’s Office asked at the end of the questions.
“Yes,” Mascia replied with a low voice.
The former soldier and his parents did not respond to journalists when they left the court with their lawyers. They are scheduled to be sentenced on August 20.
The family had appeared in court earlier this month to change their supplications, but the judge at that time stopped the procedure after the former soldier said he did not feel well mentally and that he was receiving treatment.
Jeffrey Lichtman, a mascia lawyer, said previously that the former soldier, who resigned in January, has suffered “unrelated mental health problems” for years.
