Ex-trooper going to prison

He could spend more than 9 years behind bars for threatening and fondling women he pulled over

CHAPEL HILL -- Michael Steele's lawyer called him a prime candidate for alternative sentencing such as community service or probation.

Judge Allen Baddour did not agree.

Baddour sentenced the former state trooper to at least six years 10 months and up to nine years nine months in prison for touching, kissing or fondling three Hispanic women during traffic stops last August.

"There appears to be a pattern of targeting many of the most vulnerable in our society," Baddour said. "Those are the people who have the most difficulty advocating for themselves."

Baddour said that by threatening the native Spanish-speakers with deportation if they reported his misconduct, Steele had pushed "exactly the buttons that could be pressed in order to gain compliance."

Defense attorney Early Kenan claimed that one of the women had offered to kiss Steele if he would let her go, not the other way around. Baddour was unswayed by that argument.

"If that were true, and you said yes, we'd be in the same position," the judge said. "An officer's enforcement of the law should never depend on the looks or desires of the defendant."

Baddour gave Steele the harshest possible punishment, given Steele's otherwise clean criminal record. Kenan had asked for a maximum of a split sentence, meaning some prison time and some probation "in the interest of justice and fair play."

"He's a first offender," the defense lawyer said. "He's salvageable. He's very remorseful for what he did. The court could just hammer him, but that wouldn't be in the best interests of the victims or society as a whole. He still has a lot to offer. He's still a young man. He can recover from this. He is not a threat to society."

Appeal for leniency

Steele, 30, asked for leniency so he could spend more time with his family. His parents sat with him in the courtroom. He has a 3-year-old son, and his pregnant wife had attended recent court sessions,but she was not in court Tuesday. She had been due to give birth to their second child this spring.

"This whole trial and experience, I've come closer to my family," Steele said. "I found out who my true friends are. I just hope, if it's in your pleasure, that I have time to spend with my family."

But District Attorney Jim Woodall said the state needed to make an example of Steele, because he had soiled the reputation of law officers everywhere and struck fear into the minds of law-abiding citizens.

"In each of these crimes, his activity got more and more brazen over just a few days," said Woodall.

"This was a man driving a marked Highway Patrol car, wearing a uniform, wearing a badge, wearing a gun that he could have used. He used his position in a way that, frankly, I've never seen in 18 years as a prosecutor."

One woman's story

Alma Delia Maldonado-Maldonado, the last of three victims, was present in the courtroom with her husband. Last month, Steele pleaded guilty on charges he kidnapped her after stopping her husband's car on their drive home from UNC Hospitals after a biopsy on her breast, threatened to turn her over to immigration agents, kissed her twice and threatened to kill her and her family if she did not meet him later to have sex.

"He delivered her to her home while the husband was watching," said the Maldonados' attorney Alan Doorasamy. "That is very cold. That is not a mistake.

"He was cold and calculating," said Doorasamy. "He's a police officer. He knows better."

Doorasamy said the sentence was appropriate. He declined to comment on whether any civil litigation was pending.

Kenan denied that Steele ever threatened anybody, mentioning that his client had studied theology at UNC-Chapel Hill and had dreamed of becoming a state trooper from a young age.

"Mr. Steele is a godly man," said Kenan. "He's served faithfully and admitted what he did."

Baddour said he did not want to make an example of Steele but to acknowledge the wider repercussions of his actions.

"It is frightening to all of us," he said. "It's important that we continue to have little boys who want to grow up and become highway patrolmen and that the dignity of that job remain here in this state."