Disgraced ex-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, the first top cop in city history to plead guilty to a crime, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison. The stiff sentence for the former 9/11 hero - above the federal guidelines for his crimes - was handed down in White Plains by Federal Judge Stephen Robinson.
The judge ripped Kerik, the head of the NYPD when the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists, for abusing his national notoriety.
"The fact that Mr. Kerik would use that event (9/11) for personal gain and aggrandizement is a dark place in the soul for me," Robinson said.
The suggested range for Kerik was 27 to 33 months, although Robinson had warned him that a harsher term was possible.
Kerik, addressing the court before sentencing, asked for mercy.
"Allow me to return to my wife and two little girls as soon as possible," said an apologetic Kerik, whose NYPD tenure covered 2000-01.
The maximum sentence for Kerik's eight guilty pleas was 61 years.
He admitted lying to the White House, lying about a payoff from the mob-linked contractor and filed false tax returns.
Kerik, 54, became a national hero after his appointment as police commissioner by ex-mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 2000.
His leadership on 9/11 was widely hailed, and Giuliani boosted his buddy as head of Homeland Security during the Bush Administration.
But his nomination failed when Kerik said he didn't pay Social Security to a nanny - which was only a blip on the former top cop's list of wrongdoings.
Last November, Kerik cut a plea deal to resolve the charges against him.
He was jailed for three weeks prior to his plea after the judge ruled Kerik was trying to taint the jury pool by releasing secret pre-trial information.
While behind bars, Kerik was put under psychiatric observation after displaying unspecified disturbing symptoms.
He was released on $1.5 million bail after his guilty pleas, and spent the last three months wearing an electronic monitor at his Franklin Lakes, N.J., home.
