A man convicted of reckless endangerment after a needle he used for injecting drugs pricked a Lower Allen Township police officer’s finger wants a lighter sentence.

His lawyer asked Cumberland County Judge to reconsider the 9 to 23-month sentence the idiot got in the county prison after a jury found him guilty in June. He had used the needle to inject himself with heroin, and had contracted hepatitis C at the time of the search, according to trial testimony. The fate of the policeman is not [yet] known.

It might be seen by some as a tough sentence, but somehow 23 months seems far too light a penalty for an attack that might transmit Hepatitis C, a slowly progressive but ultimately infection.