Deputy sentenced for stealing porn magazines from dead man’s home
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RIGBY – A former sheriff’s lieutenant was sentenced after he stole porn magazines from a home during the investigation of an unattended death.
Magistrate Judge Daniel Clark sentenced Fred Hale, 47, to 180 days in jail. Clark then withheld the judgment and ordered Hale to 40 hours of community service and two years of unsupervised probation.
If Hale successfully completes his probation without any violations, he will become eligible to ask the court to remove the charge from his record.
Hale must also pay $681.50 in court fines and fees.
Hale initially pleaded not guilty to one count of misdemeanor petit theft and one count of misdemeanor destruction, alteration of concealment of evidence.
As part of a plea agreement, Hale agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor destruction and alteration of concealment of evidence, and the prosecution agreed to drop the remaining charge and recommend probation and a fine at sentencing.
Sentencing
During the sentencing, Bonneville County Prosecutor Randy Neal explained that while the charges were small, they were made more severe by Hale being a lieutenant with the Teton County Sheriff’s Office.
“This is a case that has some contrast to it,” said Neal. “The fact that Mr. Hale was a law enforcement officer at the time was of course, aggravating, that in a position of trust he was investigating this particular unattended death.”
Hale’s attorney, Dennis Wilkinson, argued his client experienced a lapse in judgment despite a lifetime of service to his local community.
“Fred made a mistake. There’s no doubt about that. He’s being judged for that mistake, and it’s important for everybody and the court to know that he accepts accountability for what happened,” said Wilkinson. “Fred spent 25 years serving in the National Guard, he spent 18 years with Teton County and had an unblemished record in both the military and with Teton County.”
Wilkinson also confirmed Hale lost his job due to the court case.
Hale then spoke, apologizing for his actions and the hurt he caused those closest to him.
“Over the last five months, I’ve been tormented by the fact that I let down so many people, including my team, my community, my ancestry, and it’s torn me up,” said Hale. “In some ways, it’s good to be humbled because it knocked me off the pedestal that other people had put me on.”
Hale continued, explaining his emotions through the court process and referencing a 2022 incident in which he fell 40 feet from a roof.
“It was harder than the three-story fall that I suffered,” said Hale. “It was harder than the cancer that I went through.”
Before pronouncing the sentence, Clark explained his thought process, calling the crime a “stupid act.”
“Sometimes I understand the crime. I’ve been around it enough to understand it (and) you kind of get it,” said Clark. “I don’t get this one.”
Background of the case
On Sept. 11, a special agent with the Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney was asked to investigate a complaint about Hale with the Teton County Sheriff’s Office.
Court documents say Hale stole three pornographic magazines from the home of a deceased man, and a screwdriver out of his truck, while investigating the man’s unattended death.
Police say Hale took the magazines out of the house with a paper bag and concealed them in his patrol car. He then allegedly got into the deceased man’s vehicle and removed the screwdriver with the intent of concealing it.
According to court documents, Hale also reportedly manipulated his body-cam footage to edit out the alleged theft by “detaching it from the incident, untagging his name and placing the video in an archived area of the system so it would not be discovered.”
Magistrate Judge Brendon Taylor issued an arrest warrant, and Hale surrendered himself to deputies at the Jefferson County Jail the next morning.