NEW YORK — A former New York City police officer was sentenced Thursday to the maximum term under the law, five to 15 years in prison, for killing a family of four with his minivan last summer while drunk.

Joseph Gray, 41, showed no emotion as Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Anne Feldman sentenced him. He swallowed several times as an officer placed handcuffs on him and lowered his head as he was led out of the courtroom.

"He tempted fate by driving a thousand pounds of metal through the populated streets of Brooklyn," Feldman said before imposing the sentence. "While I want to be merciful and humane, I also want to impose a sentence that will address the crime committed."

Maria Altagracia, who lost her two daughters and two grandsons, is comforted by relatives in a courthouse elevator.

Gray was convicted earlier this month of four counts of second-degree manslaughter for mowing down the family on a Brooklyn street August 4, 2001, after drinking more than a dozen beers at a party with fellow officers.

The crash took the lives of Maria Herrera, 23, Dilcia Pena, 16, and Maria's sons, Andy Herrera, 4, and Ricardo, who was born by emergency Caesarean section at the hospital but later died.

Before Gray's sentencing, the victims' family, who had recently filed a petition with over a thousand names requesting the officer be given the maximum sentence, were given a chance to explain their grief to the judge.

"Anger consumes me," Maria's husband and the father of the boys, Victor Herrera, told the judge before the sentencing. "This is what has become of my life. I have nothing. Fifteen years is not enough."

Herrera almost broke down we he told the court that he offered to go with his wife that fateful day, but she said he should stay home and get his rest because the baby could be coming anytime.

Maria Altagracia, Maria and Dilcia's mother, was overcome by grief and could not speak before the judge. Instead she asked her sister, Ramona Hernandez to speak for her at Gray's sentencing hearing.

Ramona Hernandez, a relative, speaks to the court before Gray's sentencing.

"These people were full of life," Hernandez told the judge while holding pictures of the victims. "Ricardo didn't even get to see the sunlight."

Prosecutor Joseph Petrosino asked the judge for the maximum sentence for Gray, explaining that the former 15-year veteran of the N.Y.P.D. "did what he did because he thought he could."

The prosecutor called Gray the "prince" of the 72nd Precinct, where Gray worked his entire career policing the neighborhood where the victims lived and later died.

"He basically did whatever he wanted," said Petrosino. "He thought he could rule over the neighborhood."

Gray got drunk on the day of the crash with fellow officers in the parking lot of the precinct stationhouse after their graveyard shift. The men were celebrating the impending wedding of one of the officers, and later moved the party to a local strip club, the "Wild, Wild West," which was supposed to be off-limits to the officers.

The fatal crash drew nationwide attention to the problem of police officers and alcohol abuse, and several of Gray's colleagues were either fired or punished for their role in the partying. The Kings County district attorney also has launched an investigation into police misconduct, following allegations by a retired highway patrol officer that he and members of the police union discussed ways in which Gray could beat a Breathalyzer and coordination tests.

Harold Levy defended his client before the sentencing, saying "you should judge a man by his character not just by this one action."

Victor Herrera, gazing up during a press conference, lost his wife, Maria, and two young sons.

Levy painted Gray as a family man raising two daughters, as well as his wife's daughter from a previous marriage, and a good cop, with an exemplary record with police department. Levy pointed out that when the D.A.'s office approached Gray after his arrest for help with a drug case he had previously worked on, he didn't hesitate to answer their questions.

Gray, whose friends and family sent 100 letters to the court asking he be given leniency, also spoke briefly. "For 41 years, I have been a good citizen and I have never done anything intentionally," he told Judge Feldman.

During the trial, Levy argued that the former officer had a higher alcohol tolerance than most people, and that, although he drank 12 beers throughout the day, he wasn't drunk. When Gray took the stand, he claimed the victims failed to look before they crossed the street and jumped out in front of his 1990 Ford Winstar.

Prosecutor Maureen McCormick painted a different picture. She claimed Gray actually drank 18 beers that day before he careened into the victims at about 9 p.m., after 12 hours of partying. She said his blood alcohol content four hours after the crash measured 0.16, way above the legal limit for New York of 0.10. In closing arguments, she also pointed out that Gray was partying at the strip club the day of the accident and had little regard for the people of the neighborhood he was sworn to protect.

After the sentencing, Victor Herrera told reporters the family "will be waiting" when Gray is eligible for parole in 2007 to make sure he is not released.

"He should accept the 15 years, shut his mouth and think about what he did in prison," Herrera said.