Ex-Sahuarita officer to face no charges

SAHUARITA—No charges will be filed on the allegations of child pornography against former Sahuarita police sergeant Don Lafreniere because of a lack of evidence, state police said.

While 17 images of child pornography were discovered by Department of Public Safety investigators on a laptop owned by the former officer, the images showed no sign of having been used actively — categorized, saved to a compact disc or e-mailed to others — DPS Lt. Ryan Young said.

The decision not to press charges was made by the Attorney General’s office, which typically does not press charges unless there is evidence that someone with pornographic images actively used those images, Young said.

That’s because Internet users can find unwanted images, including pornography, “popping up” on their screens, and even if they delete the images, a record of that image will remain in their computer, Young said.

Lafreniere resigned on Jan. 31, and the case files are being studied by the Sahuarita Police Department to see if any action is warranted, and whether any procedures in the department need to be changed, Sahuarita Police Lt. Jim Gerrettie said.

Ironically, the investigation was initiated when Lafreniere went to Town Manager Jim Stahle in early 2006 with suspicions of public records tampering. There were inconsistencies in internal police memoranda, Young said, but that investigation was not conclusive and no charges were filed.

The town contacted DPS in March, 2006 and investigators discovered that Lafreniere, then the ranking member of the Police Department, held security rights to department software and had access to the department’s computer system from his home desk-top computer.

During the investigation, DPS in May 2006, examined a laptop owned by Lafreniere after he acknowledged having used it for police business once to make a PowerPoint presentation.

Coming Wednesday
See this week’s Sahuarita Sun for more on the Lafreniere case.

pfranchine@gvnews.com | 547-9738