Cop's Sentencing Scheduled for March 6

Richard Bolling was convicted last month of running over 13-year-old Trenton Booker as the teen rode on his bike in May 2009

A former Chicago police officer will have to wait a couple more weeks to learn whether or not he'll go to jail for killing a 13-year-old boy.

Richard Bolling faces anywhere from probation to 15 years in prison. Judge Matthew Coghlan has scheduled a March 6 hearing to announce his sentence.

While the family of Trenton Booker looked on, attorneys for the convicted former police officer on Wednesday presented witness after witness who described him as a good cop and a good man.

Bolling's father, former Chicago police commander Douglas Bolling, said his son will have to live with what happened the rest of his life.

Seven current and former cops and two retired judges asked Judge Coghlan for mercy in his sentencing of Bolling, who was convicted last month of aggravated DUI, reckless homicide and leaving the scene of the May 2009 crash.

Trenton Booker, 13, was struck by Bolling's vehicle as Booker rode his bicycle near 81st Street and Ashland Avenue.

Bolling's long time neighbor, Willie Haskell, praised the man who has cut his grass and shoveled his snow since his leg surgery three years ago.

"If more me were like Richard Bolling, we wouldn't have gangbangers bothering people," Haskell said. "He is a good man."

The testimony was difficult for Booker's family.

His mother fought back tears as she remembered a son that would have turned 16 this year.

"I will never get to eat in the restaurant he so desperately wanted to open," she said.

Booker's father, Terrence Booker, was looking forward to this sentencing hearing, but could barely read his victim impact statement as he stopped every few words to cry.

As Bolling held his head and looked away from the stand, Booker remembered a "one in a million kid whose smile could light up a room."

"Trenton was kind, gentle, humble and caring,” he said.

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