Post by Shuftin on Jan 1, 2007 1:33:07 GMT -5
DEC 23, 2006
ED TRELEVEN
The Madison Police Department's former public information officer faces prison next month when he is sentenced after his probation on drug and teen sex convictions was revoked last week.
Benjamin B. Vanden Belt, 35, who was convicted in 2001 of providing cocaine to a 17-year- old boy with whom he was having a sexual relationship, was originally sentenced to four years of probation for the a felony conviction and two misdemeanors. But according to a state Department of Corrections report, Vanden Belt was missing for more than a year between October 2005 and last month, during which he failed to tell his probation agent where he was.
The report also indicates that on many occasions starting in August 2002, he continued to use cocaine, drink alcohol and have contact with the boy with whom he was convicted of having sexual contact. Conditions of Vanden Belt's probation prohibited those acts.
The agent, Dena Faust, is recommending to Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust that Vanden Belt be sentenced to five to seven years in prison, followed by 7 to 10 years of extended supervision. Vanden Belt is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 10.
Under state law, Foust can only sentence Vanden Belt to prison and cannot place him back on probation.
Vanden Belt is currently being held in the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. He moved to Milwaukee in 2003.
Vanden Belt joined the Madison Police Department in 1997 and became its chief spokesman in January 2001. He was placed on leave in August of that year and fired four months later when he was convicted.
According to Faust's report:
Vanden Belt completed a drug treatment program in June 2002, but later that year tested positive for cocaine use. His agent also received word that Vanden Belt was having contact with the boy.
The boy committed suicide in June 2003. Vanden Belt admitted to his agent that he had been giving the boy money and had talked to him shortly before his suicide.
In the years throughout his probation, Vanden Belt tested positive for cocaine several more times and admitted to using alcohol. At times he attempted to avoid detection of drugs in his system by using a product called Urine Luck that he had purchased on the Internet or by bringing bottles of urine to his tests.
Vanden Belt also received drug treatment and psychiatric treatment at various times. But in October 2005 he checked himself out of a Milwaukee psychiatric hospital just prior to a drug test and remained unaccounted for until last month.
On Nov. 16, Vanden Belt told Faust that he stayed at hotels in the Milwaukee area and that he used drugs and alcohol. He also said he took a job at a restaurant in Minnesota.
Faust wrote that Vanden Belt should be imprisoned because he poses a serious threat to re- offend, which Vanden Belt denies, Faust wrote, because he "only has the highest regard for himself and does not feel he is a risk to anyone."
"The department, however, (is) unwilling to wait for Mr. Vanden Belt to create more victims," Faust wrote.
www.madison.com/wsj/mad/local/index.php?ntid=112395
ED TRELEVEN
The Madison Police Department's former public information officer faces prison next month when he is sentenced after his probation on drug and teen sex convictions was revoked last week.
Benjamin B. Vanden Belt, 35, who was convicted in 2001 of providing cocaine to a 17-year- old boy with whom he was having a sexual relationship, was originally sentenced to four years of probation for the a felony conviction and two misdemeanors. But according to a state Department of Corrections report, Vanden Belt was missing for more than a year between October 2005 and last month, during which he failed to tell his probation agent where he was.
The report also indicates that on many occasions starting in August 2002, he continued to use cocaine, drink alcohol and have contact with the boy with whom he was convicted of having sexual contact. Conditions of Vanden Belt's probation prohibited those acts.
The agent, Dena Faust, is recommending to Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust that Vanden Belt be sentenced to five to seven years in prison, followed by 7 to 10 years of extended supervision. Vanden Belt is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 10.
Under state law, Foust can only sentence Vanden Belt to prison and cannot place him back on probation.
Vanden Belt is currently being held in the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. He moved to Milwaukee in 2003.
Vanden Belt joined the Madison Police Department in 1997 and became its chief spokesman in January 2001. He was placed on leave in August of that year and fired four months later when he was convicted.
According to Faust's report:
Vanden Belt completed a drug treatment program in June 2002, but later that year tested positive for cocaine use. His agent also received word that Vanden Belt was having contact with the boy.
The boy committed suicide in June 2003. Vanden Belt admitted to his agent that he had been giving the boy money and had talked to him shortly before his suicide.
In the years throughout his probation, Vanden Belt tested positive for cocaine several more times and admitted to using alcohol. At times he attempted to avoid detection of drugs in his system by using a product called Urine Luck that he had purchased on the Internet or by bringing bottles of urine to his tests.
Vanden Belt also received drug treatment and psychiatric treatment at various times. But in October 2005 he checked himself out of a Milwaukee psychiatric hospital just prior to a drug test and remained unaccounted for until last month.
On Nov. 16, Vanden Belt told Faust that he stayed at hotels in the Milwaukee area and that he used drugs and alcohol. He also said he took a job at a restaurant in Minnesota.
Faust wrote that Vanden Belt should be imprisoned because he poses a serious threat to re- offend, which Vanden Belt denies, Faust wrote, because he "only has the highest regard for himself and does not feel he is a risk to anyone."
"The department, however, (is) unwilling to wait for Mr. Vanden Belt to create more victims," Faust wrote.
www.madison.com/wsj/mad/local/index.php?ntid=112395