Blue privilege: Cop accused of molesting 3 kids pleads down charges - no jail time

Officer Dale Couch was accused of molesting three kids and threatening them if they ever spoke up. He's now free to carry out those threats because he was a cop.

A former Manatee County Sheriff's Lieutenant escapes jail time for his sadistic and sickening acts against three children, after pleading to a lesser charge. In May of 2013 Dale Couch was arrested after children told authorities what Couch had done to them. He was charged two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under age 12 and a third charge of lewd and lascivious molestation against a 12-year-old child.

According to reports, initially, the 12-year-old girl said Couch had inappropriately touched her once.

"She said that while he was over her (in her bed) yelling and cussing at her, he grabbed her breasts with his hands," according to the arrest report.

Then in March, the counselor came forward to report additional allegations. The girl had stated that Couch had also inappropriately touched her private areas on multiple other occasions while she sat on his lap. The 9-year-old victim had reported similar allegations, with a third child also interviewed who reportedly witnessed such instances on multiple occasions.

According to the 12-year-old girl, she did not want to disclose anything because she was terrified that Couch "would do more than he was already doing."

The Harold-Tribune reported that when Couch first heard of the allegations he became so enraged that he punched a door in his home, knocking it completely off the hinges. Both of the victims were present during this display.

The girl said Couch told her when she was younger not to tell anyone about the touching, because it would "break her mother's heart," he would be arrested and then lose his career. According to his arrest report, Couch claimed that all three children made up the allegations. He blamed the victims claiming they had been coached into making up these statements.

However, all of the allegations and initial charges against Couch are irrelevant now because of a defunct justice system that protects its own. Last week, Couch pleaded no contest to battery — a lesser included charge on count three. The other other charges were dropped, Assistant State Attorney Dawn Buff said.

He was sentenced to 12 months probation, anger management courses and he cannot contact the child victims in the case. It is unclear at this point whether or not he will keep his peace officer's license. The children will now grow up knowing that the man who committed these disgusting acts against them will face no consequences for his actions. Now they will have to worry about all the threats that he made toward them if they spoke out.

It seems that America has 2 different justice systems, one for those who work in or control that system, and everyone else.

Officer-involved sexual misconduct describes an entire subset of police misconduct that includes non-criminal complaints such as consensual sexual activity that occurs while an officer is on-duty, sexual harassment, up to felony acts of sexual assault or child molestation. Sexual misconduct was the second most common form of misconduct reported throughout a 2010 sample with 618 officers involved in sexual misconduct complaints during that period, 354 of which were involved in complaints that involved forcible non-consensual sexual activity such as sexual assault or sexual battery.

Of the officers associated with reports of serious sexual misconduct, 51% (180) were involved with reports that involved minors and 49% (174) involved adults.

Perhaps the most sickening aspect associated with the high rate of sexual assault among officers is the lack of punishment they receive.

Last month we reported on the police officer who was caught with hard drives full of child porn, all the charges were dropped.

Last month we also reported on the story of Christopher Allen Carson who orally forced himself onto a sleeping 7th grader and he was only given a 30-day sentence.

Also, last month we reported on a Plano police officer who was arrested twice in a three week period for indecency with a child and for possession of child pornography.

In December, the man responsible for "keeping you safe" on the internet was sentenced to 25 years for using the internet and the very tools given to him for this job, to run a child pornography empire, where he planned to violently rape and murder children.

Prior to that it was NYPD Sgt. Alberto Randazzo who was indicted for conspiring to commit multiple sex crimes against a one-year-old infant.

In September, Oklahoma made headlines with serial rapists, in 3 weeks, all officers, as well as one police chief molesting children.

Or how about the police officer that was just found guilty of raping a girl with a pencil; she was 5!

The list goes on.