A Lakeville police officer accused of supplying two 17-year-old girls with liquor and taking pornographic photos and video footage of them pleaded guilty Tuesday.
Patrol officer Nicholas Albert Reitmeier, 25, pleaded guilty in Dakota County District Court to a felony charge for the use of minors in pornography and a misdemeanor charge for the reckless use of handguns. He initially faced two charges for each of those offenses as well as two gross misdemeanors for allegedly furnishing alcohol to minors.
Dakota County prosecutor Scott Hersey and defense attorney Jim Carlson reached a plea agreement to dismiss the other charges, which Judge Timothy McManus accepted.
The agreement also stated Reitmeier would serve 30 days in county jail, would not use alcohol or drugs, would not have contact with the victims and would not possess firearms. He will be on probation for up to four years.
"I'm just trying to move on with my life now," Reitmeier said during the court hearing. "I have a kid on the way. I want to be there for that."
Reitmeier is on administrative leave from the Lakeville Police Department, Carlson said. However, he likely will lose his job because of the felony conviction.
A police spokesman could not be reached Tuesday night for comment.
"Mr. Reitmeier has given up a lot more than most individuals in his same situation," Carlson said. "This was a huge error in his judgment."
According to the criminal complaint:
Reitmeier's friend Shin Taniguchi, 26, of Apple Valley, knew one of the teenagers and invited the girls to Reitmeier's house in the early morning of Dec. 23, 2007.
Reitmeier allegedly gave them 40-ounce beers and asked how old they were, the girls told authorities. "Old enough," one girl answered.
Taniguchi later told investigators he knew the age of the girl he invited to the house.
Carlson said Tuesday that Reitmeier did not know how old the girls were.
"These individuals were 17 years of age. These individuals were not 5," Carlson said.
Regardless, the victims, now 18, were affected by the incident, Hersey said.
After the beers, Reitmeier made the teens several mixed drinks in a martini shaker, the girls said. One of them changed into Reitmeier's shirt, which had a police logo on it.
The men also posed with Reitmeier's guns in photos and aimed them at each other. One of the weapons was Reitmeier's police sidearm.
The teenagers said they started kissing each other and became partially undressed while the men took pictures with a camera and videotaped them with cell phones.
Someone who knew Taniguchi later told one of the girls about seeing the videos. News of the recorded images circulated at the girls' school, and a student told a police liaison about them. Authorities refused to name the Dakota County school.
On Jan. 11, Dakota County sheriff's investigators searched Reitmeier's home. They seized a computer with 12 photographs of Reitmeier, Taniguchi and a female posing with the handguns, which detectives found in his house and vehicle.
They found an additional 19 photographs and four short videos of the girls partially undressed in sexual positions with each other.
Taniguchi faces two felony counts for the alleged use of minors in the pornography and two misdemeanor counts each for the alleged reckless use of handguns. He is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 17.
Reitmeier became a patrol officer in 2004 after serving as a nonsworn community service officer for two years in Lakeville.
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Patrol officer Nicholas Albert Reitmeier, 25, pleaded guilty in Dakota County District Court to a felony charge for the use of minors in pornography and a misdemeanor charge for the reckless use of handguns. He initially faced two charges for each of those offenses as well as two gross misdemeanors for allegedly furnishing alcohol to minors.
Dakota County prosecutor Scott Hersey and defense attorney Jim Carlson reached a plea agreement to dismiss the other charges, which Judge Timothy McManus accepted.
The agreement also stated Reitmeier would serve 30 days in county jail, would not use alcohol or drugs, would not have contact with the victims and would not possess firearms. He will be on probation for up to four years.
"I'm just trying to move on with my life now," Reitmeier said during the court hearing. "I have a kid on the way. I want to be there for that."
Reitmeier is on administrative leave from the Lakeville Police Department, Carlson said. However, he likely will lose his job because of the felony conviction.
A police spokesman could not be reached Tuesday night for comment.
"Mr. Reitmeier has given up a lot more than most individuals in his same situation," Carlson said. "This was a huge error in his judgment."
According to the criminal complaint:
Reitmeier's friend Shin Taniguchi, 26, of Apple Valley, knew one of the teenagers and invited the girls to Reitmeier's house in the early morning of Dec. 23, 2007.
Reitmeier allegedly gave them 40-ounce beers and asked how old they were, the girls told authorities. "Old enough," one girl answered.
Taniguchi later told investigators he knew the age of the girl he invited to the house.
Carlson said Tuesday that Reitmeier did not know how old the girls were.
"These individuals were 17 years of age. These individuals were not 5," Carlson said.
Regardless, the victims, now 18, were affected by the incident, Hersey said.
After the beers, Reitmeier made the teens several mixed drinks in a martini shaker, the girls said. One of them changed into Reitmeier's shirt, which had a police logo on it.
The men also posed with Reitmeier's guns in photos and aimed them at each other. One of the weapons was Reitmeier's police sidearm.
The teenagers said they started kissing each other and became partially undressed while the men took pictures with a camera and videotaped them with cell phones.
Someone who knew Taniguchi later told one of the girls about seeing the videos. News of the recorded images circulated at the girls' school, and a student told a police liaison about them. Authorities refused to name the Dakota County school.
On Jan. 11, Dakota County sheriff's investigators searched Reitmeier's home. They seized a computer with 12 photographs of Reitmeier, Taniguchi and a female posing with the handguns, which detectives found in his house and vehicle.
They found an additional 19 photographs and four short videos of the girls partially undressed in sexual positions with each other.
Taniguchi faces two felony counts for the alleged use of minors in the pornography and two misdemeanor counts each for the alleged reckless use of handguns. He is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 17.
Reitmeier became a patrol officer in 2004 after serving as a nonsworn community service officer for two years in Lakeville.
http://www.twincities.com/
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