Former police officer faces new stalking charge and threat of prison

A former police officer is accused of repeatedly violating a court order that bars him from having contact with a woman who was the victim of several of his crimes in the past two years, according to court records.

Walter Pacheco, 29, of Pleasant Hill, was charged last week with felony stalking for approaching the woman at a gym and tailing her in his vehicle.

Pacheco, who also is known by the surname Pacheco Belen, has so far avoided prison despite being convicted of burglary, stalking, tampering with a witness and willful injury and for violating no-contact orders. He faces a looming 19-year prison sentence because of those convictions that was initially suspended but could be put into effect if a judge determines that he violated his probation.

Pacheco is a former officer of the Carroll and Eagle Grove police departments, where he was hired despite previous harassment allegations made by a different woman who claimed he threatened to kill her. He has since relinquished his peace officer certification.

A court hearing to consider revoking his probation is set for Friday morning.

It is the second such hearing for Pacheco in the past three months. In August, a district court judge sentenced him to 24 days in jail for attempting to contact the recent victim at her workplace.

“Defendant was knocking on and looking into windows for the victim,” Judge Jeffrey Farrell wrote. “This is very concerning conduct, particularly in light of the stalking and burglary convictions.”

Pacheco had been accused of going to the woman’s places of employment and her home, stealing her security camera, driving on her lawn and accosting her at work. He was also accused of threatening her to prevent her from testifying against him.

Judge Farrell declined to impose the 19-year prison sentence at the August hearing because it appeared that the woman and Pacheco might have been “engaging in voluntary contact with each other” despite his previous actions. Pacheco claimed that the woman was using the court’s no-contact order as “leverage in their relationship,” Farrell wrote.

But Farrell wrote that he was “dumfounded” by Pacheco’s ongoing conduct given the prison sentence “hanging over his head.”

“The court needs to draw a line in the sand,” Farrell wrote. “Defendant is a smart guy and has to figure this out right now. The court is not going to mess around with repeated no-contact order violations. His relationship with the victim needs to end. All contact needs to cease. And defendant cannot use his mother or some other person as a go-between. If so, defendant may be facing another no-contact order violation or tampering charge. In either event, he may be on the road to prison.”

Court records show Pacheco used his mother to contact the woman while he was jailed last year. The woman also reported that she saw the mother in a vehicle near the woman’s residence during the recent alleged stalking incident.

Despite the judge’s admonition, Pacheco attempted to contact the woman on Oct. 16 at a public gym where employees “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 employees escorted her to her car, but Pacheco followed, the complaint says. The woman recorded video of the incident. She drove home, and when she left shortly thereafter for work, Pacheco followed her in a vehicle. The woman also saw Pacheco’s mother in another vehicle nearby.

The woman drove to a police station and reported the incident. Pacheco’s probation officer verified the new allegations by reviewing tracking data associated with Pacheco’s ankle monitor, which he is required to wear as part of his probation.

The woman also reported Pacheco and his mother have recently sent her harassing emails and that Pacheco has called her teenage son, siblings and mother.

“Pacheco is a former police officer and the victim is in fear for her safety and that of her kids,” a Des Moines police officer wrote in the most-recent criminal complaint.

Judge Farrell is expected to preside again over Pacheco’s probation revocation hearing on Friday.