A Polk County jury has found former police officer Walter Pacheco guilty of stalking his ex-girlfriend, according to court records.
Pacheco, 29, of Pleasant Hill, had been convicted of the same crime before, but this criminal charge was enhanced to a felony by the existence of a protective order that barred the two from having contact. It carries a potential punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
A sentencing hearing has not yet been set. It’s possible that a judge will extend his existing nearly 21-year prison sentence with the latest conviction.
Pacheco — also known by the surname Pacheco Belen — is a former police officer of Carroll and Eagle Grove, which hired him despite a similar harassment allegation by another woman. He was forced to resign from Carroll and was fired by Eagle Grove before moving to the Des Moines metro area. He applied to be an officer with the Des Moines Police Department, court records show.
But his law-enforcement career was derailed by a pattern of violence and harassment that surfaced in 2022, much of which was tied to his most recent ex-girlfriend. Pacheco surrendered his peace officer certification in July 2022 after, over a period of months, he was arrested for multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including assault, burglary, criminal mischief, false imprisonment, harassment, robbery, stalking, theft, witness tampering and willful injury.
Pacheco pleaded guilty to four of the charges by early 2023 and received a 19-year suspended prison sentence and probation.
In August 2023, after Pacheco again violated a no-contact order, a judge sentenced him to 24 days in jail and warned him that further violations might result in prison time.
Ultimately, it was an incident two months later that led to the imposition of the 19-year sentence, an additional nearly 2-year sentence for protective order violations, and the looming potential 10-year sentence.
On Oct. 16, 2023, Pacheco was accused of approaching the woman at a fitness center on Des Moines’ south side.
“The staff at Planet Fitness noticed the victim was in fear and attempted to help her by having the victim step behind the counter,” according to a criminal complaint. “The staff helped the victim leave Planet Fitness so she could get to her car.”
Still, Pacheco persisted by approaching her vehicle and following the woman in his vehicle to her house and then when she left for work, court records show. The woman also noticed Pacheco’s mother near the woman’s residence.
Pacheco was wearing a tracking device at the time because of his probation, and its data confirmed the woman’s allegations, court records show. She also recorded cellphone video of Pacheco.
Prosecutors also accused Pacheco of sending 39 emails to the woman after the incident and, as the court case progressed, they learned Pacheco attempted to call the woman from jail, often by using other inmates’ accounts in an apparent attempt to disguise his identity.
He was sentenced in April to up to 19 years in prison after his repeated probation violations. In June, a judge decided Pacheco had violated the no-contact order four times with the jailhouse phone calls and added about two years to his prison term.
Last week, a jury found him guilty of felony stalking after a four-day trial, court records show. Pacheco did not testify.
He faces up to 10 more years in prison when he is sentenced. Those who are incarcerated often serve less than half of their total possible sentences because of credit for good behavior, and they can also be paroled even earlier.
Pacheco has been held in the Polk County Jail since his October 2023 arrest.
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