FORT COLLINS — Anger toward a Loveland police detective was expressed in an interview by Stan Romanek after a jury convicted the 54-year-old of one count of sexual exploitation of a child while acquitting him of a second similar charge Tuesday.

The jury’s verdict comes three years after the arrest of Romanek, a Loveland resident, on child pornography allegations, several decisions on litigation involving witnesses in the case and five days of testimony in a trial.

Romanek, who has claimed to have been abducted by aliens and is considered an authority within the UFO community, faced two felony charges of sexual exploitation of a child, one alleging he possessed child pornography and another accusing him of distributing child pornography. The trial gained publicity due to Romanek’s status in the UFO community and a documentary released to Netflix in July depicting how his UFO claims have affected his life.

Ultimately, the 12-member jury decided it had enough evidence against Romanek to determine he knowingly possessed child pornography on his computer, but that he did not knowingly disseminate the illicit images and videos through an internet file-sharing program, as he was acquitted of the more serious of the two felonies.

Testimony in the case came from two witnesses who were once on opposite ends of a civil lawsuit stemming from Loveland Police Department Detective Brian Koopman’s involvement in the Romanek investigation. Koopman led the probe into activity on Romanek’s home computers and was called to the witness stand several times during the course of the trial, and Tammy Fisher, a former Loveland police officer who attempted to sue Koopman, also testified.

Fisher’s lawsuit claimed she was wrongly accused of a crime by Koopman after police heard Fisher befriended Romanek and his wife Lisa and allegedly alerted the couple that they were the subjects of a child pornography investigation.

The lawsuit, though, was dismissed by a federal court because Fisher was never formally charged with a crime. Koopman was also the defendant in another civil suit settled by the city of Loveland on his behalf, and was acquitted of criminally lying in his police work stemming from an unrelated case in a trial last year.

Stanley Romanek’s defense lawyers attempted to persuade the judge at this week’s trial to allow testimony about the litigation Koopman has faced from Stacy Lynne, a woman who has followed the cases involving Koopman and spoken about them before Loveland City Council, but the judge limited Lynne’s statements to include only the opinions she has formed of Koopman through her interviews with community members.

The fact that Lynne’s testimony could not admit details about the allegations Koopman has overcome was not critical to the prosecution team on Romanek’s case, Deputy District Attorney Mitch Murray told the Reporter-Herald.

“I don’t believe it was crucial in any way,” Murray said. “I don’t think this criminal prosecution should be used as any kind of a statement about any of the (previous litigation against Koopman). This case was about the evidence that we had showing a crime was committed that we felt we needed to prosecute.”

Romanek, who will remain out of police custody on bond until his sentencing hearing Oct. 19, believes he would have been fully acquitted of both charges if more evidence about Koopman’s past would have been given to the jury, though.

“The guy is incredibly corrupt, and he’s getting away with this stuff,” Romanek said of the detective. “And the only reason I think we didn’t win is because the DA didn’t allow us to bring in all the evidence against Koopman.”

Romanek’s defense attorney Elizabeth McClintock said she will recommend to Romanek that he appeal the conviction and hire new defense counsel to handle the appeal case, which she said is standard advice.

McClintock said Monday before the verdict that Koopman’s credibility may be re-examined by another defense team.

“It’s one of those issues that shakes out in the end. Eventually, if it’s a real big problem, somebody will address it at a later stage,” McClintock said.

Both Elizabeth McClintock and defense attorney Ted McClintock were careful to deter witnesses from speaking about Romanek’s status within the UFO community, raising objections when prosecutors asked witnesses who have known the Romaneks about whether they claimed to have met the defendant during purported paranormal events.

“Bringing in statements about UFO investigations were not relevant to the case,” Elizabeth McClintock said.

The sentence Romanek will face for the sole charge is unclear, as most child pornography cases end with a plea agreement, according to Elizabeth McClintock, but it will likely involve Romanek registering as a sex offender.

“We don’t see an awful lot of defendants going to prison on cases like this,” Elizabeth McClintock said.

Sam Lounsberry: 970-635-3630, lounsberrys@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/samlounz.