Foreign lawyer jailed for assaulting cop released and deported

The U.S. lawyer handed a jail term over a scuffle with a plainclothes cop has been released and is on his way back to the U.S., marking the end of a case that fueled international debate over police tactics in the city. 

Samuel Bickett was released from prison and boarded a flight, according to a tweet and LinkedIn post sent Wednesday. “I was released from Stanley Prison yesterday and am on a flight to Washington,” Bickett said in the tweet, adding he has been banned from Hong Kong.  

Bickett said in a LinkedIn message to Bloomberg that he was released after serving three months of his 4 1/2-month sentence, which was shortened by a third for good behavior. Hong Kong’s Immigration Department didn’t respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal office hours. 

The former Bank of America Merrill Lynch compliance director was sentenced in July on one count of assaulting a police officer and subsequently lost an appeal. Bickett said at the time he was trying to stop an attack in a subway station by a man who denied that he was a cop. 

(Bloomberg)