Charly Haley

chaley@dmreg.com

The Des Moines Police Department is four days into a voluminous effort to review hundreds of cases handled by two officers who resigned after officials said they planted evidence in a narcotics case last year.

"This is going to be a long, very extensive internal investigation. It's going to be very thorough," Sgt. Paul Parizek said at a news conference Tuesday. A Des Moines attorney and former federal prosecutor said the revelation could have far-reaching implications for the credibility of Des Moines police investigations.

Senior Police Officers Joshua Judge, 30, and Tyson Teut, 30, resigned Monday. Parizek said that police department administrators learned of the tainted case Friday. He declined to specify how it came to police's attention except for saying there was a "complaint."

He also didn't identify the specific case in which evidence was planted, and Polk County Attorney John Sarcone did not return several messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Administrators believe Judge and Teut planted evidence in a single January 2015 case, Parizek said. But the internal investigation will include a review of all of their work since August 2013, when they both joined the department. Parizek said that both officers worked on hundreds of cases.

More: Former Des Moines officer sentenced to probation in evidence planting case

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The allegations could lead to criminal charges, Parizek said, so the police department is keeping the Polk County Attorney's Office updated on the internal investigation.

No other officers are accused of wrongdoing, Parizek said.

Judge and Teut, who were assigned to patrol duties, are believed to have planted evidence on a suspect before passing the case on to investigators, Parizek said. He said that a suspect in that 2015 case was arrested and that the case was adjudicated. He did not say what the outcome of that case was.

Parizek said that there was nothing to indicate anything was wrong while investigators were reviewing evidence in that 2015 drug case.

"This was possible because we hire who we believe to be the best people and mature people, and they operate independently on the street," Parizek said.

Other officers were surprised and disappointed by the actions of Judge and Teut, Parizek said. "There's a lot of disappointment, and there's a lot of frustration for the whole organization," he said. "This one stings. It irritates just about everybody in this building."

But, he said, this type of case is rare.

"This is the outlier. This is not how our organization is," Parizek said. "This is not representative of who we are."

Guy Cook, a longtime Des Moines trial attorney and former assistant U.S. attorney in Iowa, said misbehavior by law enforcement officials can impact the credibility of evidence produced by police, resulting in reasonable doubt in a criminal case.

Cook said that he thinks Des Moines police should request that the Department of Justice and the FBI conduct an independent investigation of all the cases the officers were involved in.

"This is a very significant circumstance that has the potential to fuel distrust of the DMPD going forward," Cook said.

The allegations against Judge and Teut will likely affect many local court cases, said Bob Rigg, a professor with Drake University Law School with expertise in criminal law.

"There are going to be lots of lawyers looking at this," Rigg said.

Any case that involved Judge or Teut will likely be re-evaluated, with defense lawyers likely seeking to drop charges in pending cases, he said. In closed cases, lawyers could seek to appeal a sentence or apply for post-conviction release, Rigg said.

Parizek declined to say whether Judge or Teut had any prior disciplinary history with the police department. He also declined to say whether they had been officers anywhere else before being hired in Des Moines. According to city records, Judge and Teut both had a salary of $73,132 at the time of their resignation.

Judge is currently serving in the Iowa Air National Guard, said Col. Gregory Hapgood Jr., spokesman for the Iowa National Guard. He is a tech sergeant in a security forces squadron and is based in Des Moines.

Hapgood said the Iowa National Guard will wait to see what happens following the investigation of Judge before it takes any action.

In addition to the possibility of criminal charges, Judge and Teut face of prospect of decertification, which would bar them from being police officers in Iowa.

Nobody at an address listed for Teut would speak to a visiting reporter Tuesday evening. Judge could not be reached for comment.

Parizek said he doesn't expect the department to lose the public's support due to this incident involving Judge and Teut. He added that the police department publicly announced the resignations and internal investigation in an effort to be transparent.

"People know that they can trust us," he said.

If the investigation reveals any departmental procedure that could be improved, police department administration will review that, Parizek said. But these types of issues are typically the result of individuals' actions, he said.