DENVER — A Denver Police officer accused of felony theft pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Friday, according to court documents.
Michael Pineda, 52, admitted to one count of theft - $1,000 to $2,000, a misdemeanor charge. As a result, a charge of felony theft - $2,000 to $5,000 was dismissed by prosecutors.
He was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay $5,782 in restitution.
Police said that Pineda's administrative review can move forward now that the criminal case has been adjudicated.
Pineda, who was on non-paid administrative leave, is now suspended with pay pending the outcome of the review.
>The video above is from Aug. 2022.
Pineda and his son Santana Pineda, who is also a Denver Police officer, were taken into custody in July 2022 after an investigation conducted by DPD Internal Affairs.
Police said the investigation began after discovering the officers were not present at a scheduled, non-department paid, off-duty job on April 15.
Investigators received hours of surveillance video provided by the private employer and compared it to the officer's timesheets. DPD said they identified 23 shift discrepancies for Michael Pineda valued at $5,070 and 18 shift discrepancies for Santana Pineda valued at $3,751.50.
The officers began working off-duty for the business in October 2021, but video confirms their actual hours worked only went back as far as Feb. 28, 2022, according to DPD.
Santana Pineda is scheduled to go to trial in February.
Michael Pineda joined the department in 2004, and Santana joined in 2019. Both were assigned to the DPD Patrol Division.
Michael Pineda is also accused of beating and repeatedly tasing a man at a Denver hotel in a federal lawsuit.
Nicholas Munden said he lost his job because he was wrongly charged with assaulting a police officer and that he's still dealing with physical injuries stemming from the assault.
Jon Topolewski, Munden's lawyer, said on May 9 police were called to the Denver Art Hotel, where Munden had a reservation. Topolewski said that another guest had a complaint about a comment that Munden made.
Surveillance video provided by Topolewski shows a DPD police officer, who Topolewski said is Michael Pineda, confronting Munden at the hotel.
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