Prison term for one-time Chicago police officer

RACINE, Wis. _ A one-time Chicago police officer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for stabbing a woman while robbing a Racine store.

Fifty-year-old Michael Ellis of Racine also received a seven-year term, to be served concurrently, for robbing a woman of $200 the day before the store robbery last April.

Ellis pleaded no contest earlier this year to charges of armed robbery by use of force and strong-armed robbery in the two crimes.

Authorities say he stabbed a clerk at the Family Dollar store after demanding she open the money drawer. Officers found him hiding under a parked van.

Records show Ellis was a Chicago officer from 1982 until 1986, the same year he was acquitted of armed robbery.