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A Polk County jury has found former police officer Walter Pacheco guilty of stalking his ex-girlfriend, according to court records.

Pacheco, 29, of Pleasant Hill, had been convicted of the same crime before, but this criminal charge was enhanced to a felony by the existence of a protective order that barred the two from having contact. It carries a potential punishment of up to 10 years in prison.

A sentencing hearing has not yet been set. It’s possible that a judge will extend his existing nearly 21-year prison sentence with the latest conviction.

Pacheco — also known by the surname Pacheco Belen — is a former police officer of Carroll and Eagle Grove, which hired him despite a similar harassment allegation by another woman. He was forced to resign from Carroll and was fired by Eagle Grove before moving to the Des Moines metro area. He applied to be an officer with the Des Moines Police Department, court records show.

But his law-enforcement career was derailed by a pattern of violence and harassment that surfaced in 2022, much of which was tied to his most recent ex-girlfriend. Pacheco surrendered his peace officer certification in July 2022 after, over a period of months, he was arrested for multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including assault, burglary, criminal mischief, false imprisonment, harassment, robbery, stalking, theft, witness tampering and willful injury.

Pacheco pleaded guilty to four of the charges by early 2023 and received a 19-year suspended prison sentence and probation.

In August 2023, after Pacheco again violated a no-contact order, a judge sentenced him to 24 days in jail and warned him that further violations might result in prison time.

Ultimately, it was an incident two months later that led to the imposition of the 19-year sentence, an additional nearly 2-year sentence for protective order violations, and the looming potential 10-year sentence.

On Oct. 16, 2023, Pacheco was accused of approaching the woman at a fitness center on Des Moines’ south side.

“The staff at Planet Fitness noticed the victim was in fear and attempted to help her by having the victim step behind the counter,” according to a criminal complaint. “The staff helped the victim leave Planet Fitness so she could get to her car.”

Still, Pacheco persisted by approaching her vehicle and following the woman in his vehicle to her house and then when she left for work, court records show. The woman also noticed Pacheco’s mother near the woman’s residence.

Pacheco was wearing a tracking device at the time because of his probation, and its data confirmed the woman’s allegations, court records show. She also recorded cellphone video of Pacheco.

Prosecutors also accused Pacheco of sending 39 emails to the woman after the incident and, as the court case progressed, they learned Pacheco attempted to call the woman from jail, often by using other inmates’ accounts in an apparent attempt to disguise his identity.

He was sentenced in April to up to 19 years in prison after his repeated probation violations. In June, a judge decided Pacheco had violated the no-contact order four times with the jailhouse phone calls and added about two years to his prison term.

Last week, a jury found him guilty of felony stalking after a four-day trial, court records show. Pacheco did not testify.

He faces up to 10 more years in prison when he is sentenced. Those who are incarcerated often serve less than half of their total possible sentences because of credit for good behavior, and they can also be paroled even earlier.

Pacheco has been held in the Polk County Jail since his October 2023 arrest.

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President Joe Biden shared his plan to push sweeping reforms for the Supreme Court before he leaves office, including enacting term limits, ethics enforcement and – most importantly – dismantling presidential immunity as established by a recent case involving former President Donald Trump.

“There are no kings in America” Biden said. "No one is above the law."

Biden's remarks at the LBJ Presidential Library come just over a week after he announced he would not seek reelection, prompting Democrats to coalesce around Kamala Harris as the prospective party nominee.

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Biden took aim at Project 2025, which he says will result in an "onslaught attacking civil rights in America," by attacking policies that protect diversity, equity and inclusion and voting rights.

"'Project 2025 is real," he said. "They mean it."

"Extremism is undermining the public confidence in the court's decisions," Biden added. "In the face of increasing threats to American Democratic institutions [...] today I'm calling for three bold reforms to restore trust and accountability to the court and our Democracy."

Biden’s plan calls for enacting 18-year term limits on justices, to be cycled out every two years. It also calls for an amendment dismantling presidential immunity and ensuring future presidents are held accountable for any criminal acts in office. Lastly, he called on the creation of an ethic code that can be enforced, to curtail conflicts of interest as evidenced by controversies surrounding lavish gifts and trips given to Republican justices by wealthy conservative donors.

Donald Trump's controversial former physician tried to put to rest lingering questions about the injuries the former president suffered in an apparent assassination attempt.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician, said last week that the bullet struck the tip of Trump's right ear, less than a quarter inch from his head, and opened a two-centimeter gash that could not be closed up with stitches. He issued another statement Friday after FBI director Christopher Wray suggested to a House committee that the injury could have been caused by shrapnel.

"There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet," Jackson said in a letter posted on Trump's Truth Social account. "Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else."

Jackson said he has reviewed the former president's medical records from his initial treatment at Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania and examined the wound himself, and he said both he and the doctors and nurses who treated him at the hospital all agreed the wound was caused by a bullet.

However, those medical records have not been publicly released and the doctors who treated him have not spoken publicly about his injuries.

Trump himself angrily pushed back on Wray's comments about his injuries, saying the FBI had never examined him, and attacked the agency for prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters and allowing vandalism by demonstrators protesting the Israel-Gaza war.

"No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard," Trump posted. "There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. The hospital called it a 'bullet wound to the ear,' and that is what it was. No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!"

However, doubts about the cause of his injuries persist.

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"He was totally, definitely, 100% hit by bullet and that's why we won't allow access to the actual hospital records or to the actual doctor who treated the actual injury," said A.J. Delgado, a former Trump 2016 campaign staffer turned outspoken critic.

"We must see Donald Trump’s official medical records," said Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY).

"Trump has only himself to blame for the controversy over what happened to his ear," said Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf. "Release the medical records, let an independent doctor provide an assessment and we can move on."

"Great news, journalists!!!" said legal expert Marcy Wheeler in response to his Truth Social post stating that the hospital had determined he was injured by a bullet. "Trump has given you cause to demand his medical records from the hospital in Butler (including the C2 scan results), and a waiver so the doctors can provide a press conference."

Former New York Democratic State Sen. David Carlucci on Friday slapped down claims made by former President Donald Trump and his allies that Vice President Kamala Harris is more left-wing than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is an avowed democratic socialist.

While appearing on Fox News, Carlucci was asked by host Harris Faulkner to respond to Democratic strategist James Carville warning Democrats to not get too excited about Harris being their new nominee because she would have to face a flurry of right-wing attacks that she would have to answer for.

Carlucci, however, was not buying into this framing.

"When you talk about the liabilities for Kamala Harris -- it's not a liability, it's just a lie from Donald Trump... that she is left of Bernie Sanders," he said.

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At this point, Faulkner interrupted him and pointed to voting-record data showing that, for one calendar year, Harris had the most liberal voting record of anyone in the United States Senate.

Of course, a one-year snapshot does not account for a senator's entire record and Sanders has embraced policies such as eliminating all private health insurance in the United States that Harris has not.

Carlucci pointed out that Harris actually had trouble in the 2020 Democratic primary because she was outflanked on the left by rivals such as Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

"She is a moderate Democrat," he said. "She was a prosecutor, she was the head prosecutor in California."

Faulkner interjected and tried to change the subject.

"How's she done on the border?" she asked.

"Look, I think Kamala Harris is exactly what Donald Trump has been afraid of," he shot back.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Any hope that Donald Trump's campaign may have had that the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the projected Democratic party's presidential candidate may be off-putting to elderly white voters suffered a bit of blow on Friday during a CNN report.

In a clip featuring elderly voters in the key state of Pennsylvania, CNN's John King found a smattering of senior white voters who are not fans of Donald Trump in the least with one simply describing him as a "monster."

While CNN's Sara Sidner introduced the segment with, "Some say they are energized by Harris' has run while others aren't sure," King asked for a show of hands if any of them were "more optimistic" with Harris as the candidate, three out of four agreed.

ALSO READ: Boebert, MTG and far-fight friends derail Speaker Mike Johnson’s summer plans

According to voter Pamela Aita, who disagreed, "I don't think a lot of men will vote for Harris, I just don't. Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, whatever, I just don't think the majority of men are ready for a female president."

Asked "Who wants to see them debate," one unidentified woman blurted, "Oh yeah!" as all four raised their hands.

With King reporting all of them are "bursting with energy" over the Harris campaign, another told him, "I don't even like to hear the word Trump," she then added she calls him a "monster."

When voter Larry Malinconico was asked, "Are you looking forward to Harris debating Trump?" he shot back, "Absolutely. I'm hoping she'll just eat him alive."

Pat Levin, 95, advised Harris, "Get into those swing states and show her enthusiasm and her stamina strength, and be able to communicate strongly."

You can watch below or at the link here.

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Donald Trump gloated after a Florida judge rejected a motion to dismiss his defamation lawsuit against ABC News and host George Stephanopoulos Wednesday.

Attorneys for the network and Stephanopoulos had asked a federal judge to throw out the former president's defamation suit based on a March interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) where the host asked her "more than 10 times" whether Trump had been found “liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll civil case.

But District judge Cecilia Altonaga allowed the case to move forward.

"A big win today in high Florida court against ABC fake News, and Liddle' George Slopadopolus," the former president posted in all capital letters on his Truth Social account.

"A powerful case! Before you know it, the fake news media will be forced by the courts to start telling the truth. This is a great day for our country. MAGA2024"

Defense attorneys had argued that Trump intends to re-litigate "a meritless theory of defamation" that has already been rejected twice in New York, arguing that a jury in that state had found the former president committed a violent sexual assault, so it would not be considered defamatory under Florida law to say that he had committed rape.

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“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,'” wrote New York-based District Judge Lewis Kaplan in that case.

“Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages to author E. Jean Carroll after the jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.