Rod Bretches, the former Loveland police officer convicted of possessing child pornography and videotaping a woman in the shower without her consent, was sentenced Monday to 16 months in jail, plus 15 years of probation and intensive therapy.
Eighth District Court Judge Stephen E. Howard said that while Bretches’ status as both an ex-policeman and sexual offender will render him highly vulnerable to harassment by other inmates, it would have been inappropriate to not give a jail sentence.
“The circumstances are, in my opinion, horrendous,” Howard said.
Bretches, 49, must turn himself in by Friday at 5 p.m. His sentence requires he spend the first six months of his sentence in the county jail, though he may become eligible to spend the remaining 10 months on outside work release.
He was originally arrested in May 2012 after colleagues at the Loveland Police Department began investigating Bretches following a woman’s complaint that he had secretly videotaped her showering and then shared it online. Police searched his home and found videos and photos depicting child pornography, in addition to online messages between Bretches and user name “masterbill69” suggesting the shower taping was premeditated.
“You need to grow some … and start taking pictures,” masterbill69 wrote in June 2011. “I want action, wimp.”
Bretches’ attorney, Denver-based criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Willett, argued against a jail sentence by citing his client’s “troubled” and “broken” childhood. In his youth, Bretches rarely spent more than one full year in the same place and was often subjected to abuse from his mother’s numerous sexual partners.
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The Title says it all….. interesting that they can record us but heaven forbid if we ever record them making an arrest.
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