Ex-Fruitland police officer ordered to serve up to 10 years on 4 sex crime convictions
A Payette County judge has sentenced a former Fruitland Police officer who sexually abused multiple juvenile boys while off-duty.
District Judge Susan Wiebe sentenced Alexander Plaza, 25, to 10 years in prison with five years fixed, but she retained jurisdiction and granted him a rider program. In the rider program, Plaza will be incarcerated for up to a year while undergoing programming, and if he is successful, he could be released from prison and serve the rest of his sentence on probation.
Should he be granted probation and violate it, he could be sent back to prison for the remainder of the sentence.
In January, Plaza pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual battery by solicitation of a child ages 16 or 17 and one count of sexual abuse of a child younger than age 16. Wiebe sentenced Plaza to 5-10 years in prison on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently.
None of the abuse occurred while Plaza was on duty. The Fruitland Police Department confirmed last year that at the time of Plaza’s resignation in June, he was serving in a reserve officer capacity.
Plaza was arrested in September 2019 on charges that covered alleged abuse between October 2017 and June 2019.
Plaza solicited a 16- or 17-year-old to engage in sexual activity, according to a copy of his initial criminal complaint. He was accused of asking the child to send him pictures of his genitalia, and on at least one occasion he made a recording of a juvenile’s genitalia, prosecutors said. He also was accused of sexually abusing a 17-year-old in 2018.
The Fruitland Police Chief verified at the time of his arrest that Plaza served as a Fruitland reserve police officer from April 2015 to November 2018. He served in full-time police officer capacity for about three months from Nov. 1, 2018, to Feb. 4, 2019, when he was placed back into a reserve officer status because he was unable to meet the minimum fitness standards.
Upon his release from prison, Plaza will be required to register as a sex offender.
