A Pennsylvania state trooper was sentenced Tuesday to 14 months of supervised probation in Cumberland County Court for interfering in a child molestation case that a county prosecutor had been pursuing.
Trooper Barry R. Tangert Jr. has been suspended without pay since charges were filed against him, said state police spokesman Jack Lewis. Now that Tangert has been sentenced, state police will dismiss him and he cannot return to the force, Lewis said.
A county jury convicted Tangert in February of obstructing justice by trying to get First Assistant District Attorney Jaime Keating to drop charges against a woman whom Tangert said was his lover.
The jury had acquitted Tangert of the most serious felony charge of threatening Keating to influence him to drop the charges. A felony conviction would have meant Tangert could never again carry a weapon, all but guaranteeing he would never again work as a police officer for any other jurisdiction.
Tangert was convicted of a misdemeanor. Attorney General spokesman Nils Frederiksen said the law does not prohibit a local police department from hiring someone with a misdemeanor.
Tangert, 46, has been a state police officer since 1992. Lewis said whether Tangert keeps his pension or not is up to the state retirement board.