Leechberg, PA. Fourty year old, small town police chief Michael William Diebold was arrested on January 5th, 2018 by under cover agents as he attempted to meet up with what he thought was a 14 year old girl for dominant sexual intercourse. He solicited sex from the undercover agent pretending to be a 14 year old girl via Kik, a messaging app. He went by the username "Kutecop4you". Yes, that is a disgusting 26 year age difference.
His bond has been set at $500,000 and he is scheduled for a preliminary hearing by District Judge Cheryl Peck-Yakopec on Jan. 16.
The matter is especially serious because Mr. Diebold was married with a newborn child.
Mr. Diebold has been charged with two felonies: criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and unlawful contact with a minor.
Gratefully, PA's Attorney General Josh Shapiro is taking the matter VERY seriously. A statement from him read as follows:
"This case is particularly heinous because the perpetrator is a public official, sworn to serve and protect the community. We have a zero tolerance policy for the sexual abuse of children and my office will prosecute any offender to the fullest extent of the law, no matter who they are."
Clearly Mr. Diebold is in a heaping pile of trouble and wishes he hadn't gotten out of bed the morning he attempted such a crime.
Mr. Diebold apparently sent explicit messages and photos to the undercover agent. Gratefully, the agent took notice of Mr. Diebold's original online ad which reportedly read "dom male ... looking for a female sub for ongoing play sessions."
What apparently set the agent off was the additional part of Diebold's online ad which stated he did not care what the respondents age was: "I do not have a set type of woman so any age, race or status may email me."
By suggesting "status," he was also looking for married women.
Being a Police Chief, you would think he knew better. However, an affidavit filed in court indicated that he confessed to police during an interview after waiving the right to have an attorney present.
The undercover agent also stated in his affidavit to the court that Mr. Diebold stated his life was totally over and that he knew that being 40 while attempting to have sex with a 14 year old was illegal and immoral. He failed to mention how it might affect his wife but since this has all been made public, we can only assume that she was not very happy about it at all, especially because she just recently gave birth to his child.
Chief Diebold was arrested on Friday, January 5th, 2018 by agents from the PA Attorney General's Child Predator section when he arrived at the location in Westmoreland County that he had instructed the 14 year old girl to meet him at.
On a side note, part of Mr. Diebold's left hand and part of his forearm was amputated last year due to a fireworks accident during a fire company carnival on June 24th, 2016. Apparently Mr. Diebold was CEO of the fireworks company that created the injurious fireworks so he couldn't even do that right. The chief got married approximately 18 days later. Mr. Diebold's new wife, Danielle Reinke, recently gave birth to a baby boy. Hopefully the boy does not belong to the disgraced chief of police. (That would be an excellent plot-twist, wouldn't it?)
Mr. Diebold was scheduled to return to work last month but city officials placed him on leave December 11th, 2017. Apparently his supervisors knew his arrest was pending.
However, the Mayor of Leechburg, PA, Wayne Dobos, stated that he was "not aware" that detectives were investigation Mr. Diebold on December 11th, 2017 when Mr. Diebold was placed on leave. Clearly law enforcement knew that they had to keep the matter top secret and kudos to them for having done so.
The mayor continued in his official statement to say, "This is all a surprise to me. I'm just as shocked as everyone else."
Let's hope that is the case because one of a mayor's top jobs is to fire an out of control police chief like Mr. Diebold clearly was.