Man gets 10-year prison sentence in beating of Oklahoma City police officer Chad Peery

“There's a time and a place for everything,” Peery, 35, said from his wheelchair Thursday at police headquarters. “Yesterday was not the time and the place.”

Joshua Bernard Rinken, 29, of Norman, pleaded guilty to an assault and battery charge Wednesday as part of a plea agreement before Oklahoma County District Judge Kenneth Watson.

Before he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 10 years of probation, Rinken asked to apologize to the officer and his family but was turned down.

“We offered to, and had a desire to address Chad and the rest of the Peery family,” said Tommy Adler, Rinken's attorney. “We gave them the option to hear that apology and they declined to hear it.”

Peery said “there will come a day” when he can forgive Rinken and two others for altering the course of his life.

For now, he's more interested in moving “onward and upward.”

“It allows me to close this chapter of my life and just focus on work, my kids and my life,” he said. “I'm glad it's behind me. I can't change what's done.”

‘Most culpable'

Prosecutors said Rinken put Peery in a headlock in 2011, as the officer was escorting him and two other men out of a northwest Oklahoma City bar.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater negotiated the deal with Rinken's attorneys. Rinken, he has said, was the “most culpable” in the attack.

“We came to an appropriate resolution in the matter that was authorized by Chad Peery,” Prater said Thursday.

With credit for time served, Rinken will be eligible for parole in seven years, according to his attorney.