DES MOINES – A former Des Moines police officer has pleaded guilty to non-felonious misconduct in office, admitting to combining evidence in one case with that of another.
Tyson Teut, 31, entered a guilty plea to the single serious misdemeanor charge Thursday in Polk County Court, and was sentenced to a suspended prison term of 1 year, plus 1 year of probation. Teut, a former officer with the Des Moines Police Department, took meth seized from an arrest and placed it into a container seized from an earlier arrest, of Kyle Weldon, in January 2015, according to a criminal complaint.
According to court records filed Thursday, Teut “failed to ensure the sanctity of controlled substance evidence … by knowingly commingling that [previously seized] controlled substance evidence with a portion of controlled substance evidenced seized separately.”
The police report in Weldon’s case stated the container had crystal-like residue, and the preliminary complaint stated the contents of the container tested positive for meth.
A second charge in the case—a felony count of perjury—was dismissed, per a plea agreement with the state.
Teut was assessed a fine of $315 in the case.
