The Department of Justice announced today that James G. Litz, 54, of the city of Tonawanda, N.Y., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Arcara, to a felony charge of deprivation of civil rights under the color of law. The offense carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both. Litz admitted in an executed plea agreement to assaulting and choking a victim on June 21, 2003, while the victim was in the rear of a city of Tonawanda Police vehicle. The plea agreement further detailed that the government had evidence of other incidents involving different victims occurring in 2009, consisting of the defendant poking one victim in the chest, twisting the defendant’s arm and causing pain, and grabbing and choking for a lengthy period of time another victim who happened to be at the scene of an arrest of a different individual. In both of the 2009 incidents, the plea agreement states that after assaulting the victims in the manner described, t...