Friday, September 19, 2008

Officer Daniel Coronado Charged with Illegally checking Backgrounds


A Mesa police officer has been charged in connection with illegally checking backgrounds on 10 people over the course of more than three years.

Officer Daniel Albert Coronado, 37, of Gilbert, was indicted Tuesday on four counts of computer tampering and four counts of unauthorized access to criminal history.

The case was first investigated internally by Mesa police after it was uncovered during a separate criminal investigation. It has since been turned over to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Coronado has been suspended with pay, police said.

"I don't know his motives," said Mesa police spokesman Sgt. Ed Wessing.

According to the indictment, Coronado is accused of using police computer terminals to access the Arizona Criminal Justice Information System and computerized criminal history records between January 2005 and June 2008. The indictment accuses Coronado of illegally logging onto the computer terminals 149 times and accessing the criminal records of about 10 people, police said.

Since officers are assigned a login ID number, it's easy for investigators to see every time someone logs in and who they search.

Wessing said the people whom Coronado allegedly looked up were those he associated with in some manner.

"This (issue) is grilled into officers from Day One," Wessing said. "This is something we expect every officer understands clearly."




1 comment:

a friend said...

coronado is only guilty of giving 110% to the mesa p.d. unfortunatly he was picked to be made an example of. well too bad for the mesa p.d. He went above and beyond the call of duty so i hope you are somewhere where you are appreciated.