ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –The Albuquerque police officer who resigned after he was arrested for inappropriately communicating with a 13-year-old girl will stay behind bars until trial.
Investigators say 27-year-old Joshua DeLeon met that girl when responding to a call for service. Prosecutors argued on Friday that he’s a danger to children in the community. Ashley Schweizer said, “Pedophilia is unique in the criminal sphere your honor because it doesn’t go away. His drive and attraction towards these kids isn’t going to go away and we do have a pattern here.”
But his attorney argued he’s never been in trouble before. “As long as we can get some assurances and again rather than using precrime but looking at the individual’s history do they have any history of not following court orders? I think that is an important consideration,” said John McCall.
It all started in February when the former patrol officer responded to calls involving a young girl threatening to commit suicide. In court, the state told the judge DeLeon began texting the child constantly and even stopped by her home on three different occasions. DeLeon was able to convince the child to leave her home twice to come to see him. According to transcripts of those texts, he tells the girl they can have a relationship and she can come spend the night at his house but they have to keep it a secret.
In the end, Judge Jennifer Wernersbach agreed to keep him behind bars saying she doesn’t believe there are any conditions of release that would assure he wouldn’t try to communicate with minors. “Those behaviors within this complaint show poor judgment and an indication he would be willing to go around what he knows to be the law.”
APD began looking into DeLeon after the victim came forward, telling a case worker that he had tried to kiss her, and she had stopped him. Investigators believe he may have contacted other children as well. DeLeon resigned from APD in March, less than two weeks after the allegations surfaced.
DeLeon is charged with child solicitation, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and for receiving public money for services not rendered because a lot of this was happening while he was supposed to be working.
