Retired cop finally gets prison for crimes against kids

LEO HALEY MANAGED to escape jail time in two cases involving crimes against children in the last two years, as detailed in Tuesday's

Daily News

cover story.

But yesterday, as a disturbing new allegation emerged in court, Haley's luck ran out when he was sentenced to 3 1/2 to 7 years in state prison for violating his parole.

"He's received leniency on multiple occasions," Haley's parole officer, Carissa Tillotson, told Judge George Pagano in Delaware County Court. "Instead of making a conscious decision to change, he then escalated his behavior."

In the first case, Haley, now 73, received house arrest and probation in a plea deal with Delaware County authorities in 2011 for possessing and disseminating hundreds of images of child pornography on his computer. As a result of his conviction, Haley was required to register for life as a sexual predator under Megan's Law.

While still on parole, Haley attempted to lure Donna Harte's 8-year-old daughter from the front yard of her Roxborough home in 2012. Haley grabbed the child by the neck and threatened to kill her but was scared away, authorities said.

Despite his status as a Megan's Law offender on parole, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office struck a plea deal with Haley, a retired Philadelphia Police inspector, for five years' probation on a single count of terroristic threats.

The guilty plea, however, in Philly was an automatic admission that he violated his parole in the Delaware County case, setting the stage to be sentenced yesterday to the maximum amount of jail time for the violation.

Also yesterday, new information came to light in court that a child-porn video had been discovered on Haley's iPod while he was on home monitoring for the child-porn case, before the Philly luring attempt, said Delaware County Deputy District Attorney Michael Galantino.

Instead of filing new charges or punishing Haley for violating his parole, Delaware County authorities decided that he should only continue treatment and home monitoring.

If Haley had been convicted again of child pornography, he would have faced a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison for a second Megan's Law offense, preventing the luring attempt, Galantino said.

"In hindsight, perhaps we should have done that," Galantino told the judge yesterday. "This new arrest is mind-boggling."

Galantino was not the original prosecutor on Haley's case. He handled yesterday's hearing at the request of District Attorney Jack Whelan, who wasn't the D.A. at the time.

Haley, a churchgoing retired police inspector with master's degrees in business and religion, maintains his innocence.

"I didn't do what I was accused of," he said.