Police investigate officer
A Spokane police officer, who had a convicted sex offender living in his basement, is now under investigation by his own department, Deputy Chief Al Odenthal confirmed Wednesday.
There also are companion investigations under way by state Child Protective Services caseworkers and the FBI into the relationship between Police Cpl. David Freitag and registered sex offender Thomas A. Herman, who now is accused in a child pornography case.
The 65-year-old child porn suspect was arrested July 25 as part of an FBI investigation into an international network of “online predators” who traded thousands of pictures of children being raped.
Herman was one of 22 suspects arrested for allegedly posting encrypted child pornography photos on a Web site operated by the “North American Man/Girl Love Association.” The site was shut down as part of the FBI’s investigation that included searches at 35 locations in 20 states.
“Earlier today, we were informed by the FBI that we were free to pursue questions that we have concerning Officer Freitag,” Odenthal said Wednesday, when reached for comment.
He wouldn’t elaborate on the type of crimes being investigated or reports that Freitag was storing a collection of firearms for Herman.
Agents seized eight to 10 handguns, rifles and a shotgun that Freitag was keeping for Herman, sources have confirmed. It’s a federal crime for a felon to possess weapons or ammunition, and concealing a felony could be a state crime.
“That’s part of the FBI investigation, and I’m not free to comment on that,” the deputy chief told The Spokesman-Review.
Odenthal said Freitag, a 15-year veteran now on paid leave, is being investigated by “elements of the investigative division” for possible violations of state law.
Detectives “have been tasked with pursuing questions the department has” about Freitag and his relationship with Herman, who lived in the officer’s north Spokane home until last week, said Odenthal, who didn’t disclose which special unit was assigned the case.
“I would not characterize it as an internal affairs investigation,” Odenthal said.
Freitag, who worked in the patrol division, has retained defense attorney Carl Oreskovich.
“It is my understanding that he is not the target of any investigation,” Oreskovich said. “Mr. Freitag is cooperating fully with the city (police), with any investigation.
“I anticipate that when the city (police department) completes its investigation that it will conclude that Mr. Freitag has done nothing wrong and only was a caring neighbor,” Oreskovich said.
Information forwarded by the Justice Department and the FBI also has triggered a separate child-welfare investigation by state Child Protective Services caseworkers, federal authorities confirmed.
Freitag and his wife, who have a 7-year-old daughter and two teenage boys, apparently were aware that the man living in the basement of their home on North Stevens was a felon and a registered sex offender, authorities have said.
CPS investigators are now attempting to determine whether those children had contact with Herman, federal sources confirmed.
FBI agents who searched the home seized Herman’s computers and scores of compact discs, allegedly containing explicit photos of young girls being molested by adult men, according to court documents.
Kathy Spears, a spokeswoman for the state’s Child Protective Services in Olympia, declined to comment on whether the agency was investigating the welfare of Freitag’s children.
Herman, who recently worked at a Spokane laundry, was convicted of photographing, raping and sodomizing girls in Spokane in the mid-1980s. He returned to Spokane after being classified as a sexual psychopath and serving prison time for convictions in 1986 for five counts of sexual exploitation of a child, two counts of statutory rape and one count of indecent liberties.
Herman, represented by Assistant Federal Defender Tina Hunt, waived his right to a bail hearing in a brief court hearing on Wednesday.