“A former detective with the Albion Department of Public Safety is charged with aiding a couple charged with producing child pornography.
Luis Tejada of Homer was arraigned in Calhoun County District Court Friday on his 41st birthday on charges of being an accessory after the fact to a felony and lying to a police officer.
Tejada faces up to five years in prison if convicted. He appeared early Friday with his attorney, Eusebio Solis, before District Judge James Norlander. Tejada was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond.
His preliminary examination is scheduled for May 13 before Judge Paul Beardslee.
Prosecutor David Gilbert said Tejada is charged with assisting Norman Pittelkow and his wife, Nicole Jacob, of Albion, evade capture in fall 2015 after charges had been filed against the couple. He also is charged with giving false information to police who were investigating their disappearance.
Tejada was on administrative leave from the department at the time on unrelated allegations filed against him with the department, according to Albion Chief Scott Kipp. He said he could not discuss those allegations.
Additionally, Pittelkow said that he contacted Tejada, who came to his home to make copies of child pornography to begin an investigation and track down those receiving the illegal images.The federal filing says Tejada never opened a report or filed the child pornography into evidence.
Tejada later sold his motorhome and gave the proceeds to Pittelkow and Jacob, advising them to flee the state because child pornography arrests warrants had been issued against them.
Excerpted from here:http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2016/05/police_officer_accused_of_obta.html#incart_river_home?platform=hootsuite
And here:http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2016/05/police_officer_accused_of_obta.html
And then there is this: “Amber Thomas always believed police were sworn to serve and protect.
Then she met Louis Tejada.
Tejada, a police officer in Albion, a town of 10,600 near Jackson, met Thomas in March 1999 when he came to her boyfriend’s house to take a harassment complaint against her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.
Although he took her complaint, Thomas said that Tejada didn’t make much of an impression on her. Then Tejada sent Thomas, then an 18-year-old cleaner at Albion College, a dozen long-stem roses with a card reading, ‘I would like to get to know you better, L.T.’
Even after Tejada showed up on her doorstep around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 27, 1999, Thomas didn’t recognize him until he flashed his badge.
Less than a month later, she went to the police station to file a complaint against Tejada, who had used the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN) to locate and begin pursuing her, state records show.***
She said police assured her Tejada would not contact her again.
Within days, however, Tejada stopped by her brother’s house. He paged her from a local tattoo parlor and stopped by a cousin’s home where Thomas said she’d be baby-sitting, Thomas said.***
Albion Police Chief L.J. McKeown Jr. said Tejada was lectured, suspended for a day without pay and put on probation. He remains on the force.
Thomas said the incident shook her trust in the police. ‘It was just too much for me,’ she said. ‘Who are you supposed to go to when the people you’re supposed to go to are causing your problems?'”
Deborah Lee Jarrett 