Man acquitted in Clairton officer's shooting sentenced on other charges

PITTSBURGH — A man convicted of burglary, robbery and other charges related to a home invasion that left a responding officer paralyzed last year was sentenced on Thursday.

Officials said Emilio Rivera, 27, was sentenced to 50-100 years for his involvement in the case.

Rivera was convicted of charges related to the home invasion but not with the shooting of James Kuzak.

Kuzak was shot five times while responding to a home invasion call last April. The shots left him paralyzed from the waist down.

"All I am concerned with is the well being of my family, and hopefully I can give them back what I took away from them as being a police officer for 20 years," Kuzak said on Thursday.

After hearing his sentence, Rivera told the judge that "justice was not served" and that he was the victim.

"They couldn't get a guy to pin the shooting of Kuzak on, so they were trying to pin all these years on my son. Even if he was aquitted, they are still giving him the time for it," said Myra Rivera, Emilio Rivera's mother.

During Rivera's trial, jurors threw out the attempted homicide charges against Rivera, of McKees Rocks, and 19-year-old Marcus Andrejco, of Rankin.

That meant the jury found reasonable doubt that either man shot Kuzak even though Rivera was convicted of burglary and other charges in the home invasion during which Kuzak was wounded.

WPXI