As he arrived back at his home, a thinner looking Bernie Kerik seemed to think about answering the reporters shouting out to him.
Instead, he gave a wave, and then began to hug his wife and children for the very first time in more than three years.
What's next for New York City's former police commissioner is anyone's guess, but Tuesday was all about what's now behind Bernard Kerik.
That is, time served in federal prison in Maryland after charges of corruption and scandal plagued the former top cop, who once stood a shot at becoming the Homeland Security chief during the Bush administration, until the vetting process took him down.
This is what Kerik had to say back then: "I've watched as people picked apart my 30-year career at fighting crime and picked apart everything I've ever done."
But in the end, it was a guilty plea in 2009, with Kerik forced to admit tax fraud and lying to the White House about a mob-linked contractor who did work on his Riverdale apartment.
He went from standing beside former Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a hero of sorts, leading the city through the aftermath of 9/11, to standing before a judge.
He wept at times as he testified against the contractors accused of covering up their free renovations of his home.
