HONOLULU — A plea deal with prosecutors will allow a former Hawaii police officer to serve probation rather than jail time for sexually assaulting a child.
News outlets reported Wednesday that 45-year-old Teddy O. Van Lerberghe has reached an agreement guaranteeing a five-year probation sentence with no jail term. He must register as a convicted sex offender for life.
An Oahu grand jury indicted him in 2017 on seven counts of sexual assault against a 5-year-old girl beginning in 2004 and continuing until 2008.
Van Lerberghe pleaded no contest to the seven felonies.
He served in the Honolulu Police Department from 2007 until he was fired in 2016.
A spokesman says the Honolulu prosecutor’s office will not comment until after Van Lerberghe is sentenced by a judge in August.