In the latest example of Blue Privilege allowing a criminal cop to walk, courts in Hawaii struck a plea deal with a cop that spared him a day of prison in exchange for him pleading no contest.
Teddy Van Lerberghe was a Honolulu police officer when he repeatedly sexually assaulted a girl under the age of five from 2004 to 2008, according to his indictment.
He had pleaded not guilty but changed his plea earlier this month after striking the deal with prosecutors, according to Hawaii News Now.
The 45-year-old cop will only receive five years of probation when he’s sentenced in August as well as have to register as a sex offender for life, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
A grand jury initially indicted Van Lerbeghe in 2017 on seven counts of sexual assault on the girl, including four Class A felonies, each one carrying mandatory 20-year prison terms.
The charges were then reduced to four Class B felonies and three Class C felonies, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and five years respectively.
But Van Lerberghe was still not satisfied until the threat of prison time was removed altogether.
Van Lerberghe worked for the Honolulu Police Department since 2007 before he was fired in 2017 after the pedophila accusations surfaced.
But with Blue Privilege comes audacity so Van Lerbeghe wasted no time in appealing his termination despite the severity of the charges he was facing, an absurdity highlighted by Honolulu Civil Beat in 2017.
After all, there is no crime low enough for police unions to defend.
