After more than two days of deliberation, a jury yesterday convicted a former West Mifflin police officer on five of nine counts, including assaulting a juvenile and false swearing.

Noel G. Missig, 40, was acquitted of charges that he planted cocaine on a suspect, but the convictions on five misdemeanor counts will cost him his pension and could send him to jail.

The charges were the result of a joint state-federal investigation into misconduct by former West Mifflin police Chief Frank Diener. Mr. Diener has already been sentenced in state and federal court on separate charges.

Jurors said the cocaine planting lacked sufficient evidence and was plagued by conflicting witness statements. On the other counts they were divided, causing the long deliberations, during which they came out several times to ask for testimony to be read back to them.

"We deliberated for a while to make sure we had all the facts straight," said juror Bryan Leones.

One witness, Andrew Palmer, testified that the former officer, who was fired in February 2007, kicked him in the ribs while he was handcuffed on the ground and choked and head-slammed him at the West Mifflin station.

The assault charges were the last to be decided, juror Renee Knipp said, and what tipped the scales was that Mr. Palmer testified to the assault at his preliminary hearing and it was documented before the investigation into the West Mifflin police department.

Mr. Missig also was convicted of lying to obtain a search warrant of a borough business, telling a judge he had received information about illegal poker machines from an inspector.

Defense attorney Stephen R. Greenberg, who doesn't anticipate an appeal, said Mr. Missig likely will get probation at sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 20 before Judge David R. Cashman. The maximum sentence he could receive is five to 10 years in jail.

But Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Claus said he thought that Mr. Missig deserved jail time because police officers should be held to a higher standard.

"I think [the verdict is] a strong statement," he said, "that public corruption in any form is not to be considered acceptable conduct."