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Officer Dale Malesh charged with CSC [April 2013]
Former Warren school security officer faces trial on sex charges
By NORB FRANZ
Macomb Daily
Posted: Tuesday, 06/04/13 06:35 pm
http://www.macombdaily.com/article/20130604/NEWS01/130609830/former-warren-school-security-officer-faces-trial-on-sex-charges
A former Warren police officer who spent more than a dozen years working in one of the city’s school districts was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on sexual misconduct charges, following testimony by a 16-year-old girl.
Dale Wayne Malesh, 62, was bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court on four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct — a 15-year felony — after the teen said in Warren district court that she voluntarily engaged in sexual penetration with him in February and March. The girl — whose name is not being published by The Macomb Daily — is a student at Warren Woods-Tower High School.
Malesh was employed by the Warren Woods Public schools as a school liaison officer from January 2011 to June 2012. Prior to that, he served as a school resource officer in Warren Woods, with the district and the city splitting the cost of his salary from September 1999 until his retirement from the Police Department in January 2011.
The age of consent in Michigan is 16. Macomb County prosecutors have based their case against Malesh on a portion of the state’s criminal sexual conduct laws that prohibits a volunteer from using his or her role to access, or establish a relationship with, minors between ages 15 and 17.
RELATED ASSETS
The Warren girl’s willingness to testify about a romantic relationship between her and Malesh was uncertain heading into Tuesday’s preliminary exam before 37th District Judge Dean Ausilio. On May 7, she repeatedly said from the witness stand that she was “too emotionally distraught” to answer whether her relationship with Malesh — known in the school district as “O.D.” for Officer Dale — turned romantic. Two weeks later, she was admitted into a psychiatric center and the case was adjourned again. At the time, the judge warned that he would continue to postpone the hearing as often as necessary and hinted he may find her in contempt of court if she refused to answer the prosecution’s questions.
The teen cried as she entered and sat in the courtroom Tuesday. With support from friends and her father, she took the witness stand.
She appeared composed and smiled while saying she and Malesh had exchanged phone calls and sexual texts daily. She said they rendezvoused at a Warren hotel on a Friday in February, and that they also had sex at her home in March while she was baby-sitting her nieces, ages 4 and 5.
Teen in psychiatric center; case against ex-cop adjourned
By NORB FRANZ
Posted: Wednesday, 05/22/13 12:01 am
Updated: Wednesday, 05/22/13 07:35 am
http://www.macombdaily.com/article/20130522/NEWS01/130529884/teen-in-psychiatric-center-case-against-ex-cop-adjourned
A hearing for a retired Warren police officer charged with criminal sexual conduct was postponed Tuesday because the prosecution’s key witness — a 16-year-old girl — is in a psychiatric hospital.
The unavailability of the teenager to take the witness stand caused 37th District Judge Dean Ausilio to adjourn the resumption of Dale Wayne Malesh’s preliminary exam for two weeks. Ausilio rejected requests by defense attorney Steven Kaplan to dismiss the case or, in the alternative, reduce Malesh’s $150,000 bond to $50,000.
Nicole Blank, the Macomb County assistant prosecutor on the case, said she was notified by Harbor Oaks Psychiatric Hospital staff that the teenager was admitted to the facility Tuesday and is expected to remain there two to five days for treatment.
“There’s no indication from the school or family that she’s trying to elongate the case,” Blank said.
RELATED ASSETS
In April, the teenager told The Macomb Daily that her relationship with Malesh, 62, was consensual, and she called the criminal charges “ridiculous” and “overblown.”
Earlier this month, the girl testified that she knew Malesh because he worked as the Warren Police Department’s school resource officer to the Warren Woods Public Schools. Malesh held that post for 11 years, up to his retirement from the city in January 2011. After he left the force, school officials hired him as a private security officer. The teen, currently a junior at Warren Woods-Tower High School, also repeatedly testified on May 7 that she was “too emotionally distressed” to answer whether her relationship with Malesh turned romantic.
Blank insinuated Tuesday that someone has tried to influence the teenager’s testimony. The assistant prosecutor said text messages retrieved from the girl’s cellphone show a person named “Steve” told her to contact him from a different phone to discuss their mutual “friend.”
Ex-cop’s sex case halted when teen too ‘distressed’
By NORB FRANZ
Posted: Tuesday, 05/07/13 08:02 pm
http://www.macombdaily.com/article/20130507/NEWS01/130509639/ex-cop-8217-s-sex-case-halted-when-teen-too--145-distressed-8217
A Warren teenager testified Tuesday she was too upset to answer whether her relationship with a retired police officer who worked at her school, turned romantic.
The 16-year-old girl, who attends Warren Woods-Tower High School, sat silently for several seconds when asked repeatedly in court about a change in her relationship with former Warren police officer Dale Wayne Malesh, 62.
“I’m too emotionally distressed to answer,” said the teen, whose name is not being published by The Macomb Daily.
Malesh, of Roseville, faces two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. He retired from the Warren Police Department in January 2011, having spent the last 11 years of his law enforcement career as a school resource officer in Warren Woods Public Schools, where he had the nickname “OD” for “Officer Dale.”
RELATED ASSETS
After Malesh left the police force, school district officials hired him as a school security contractor.
According to court records, Warren police and prosecutors allege that sexual penetration occurred in February and March. The teen turned age 16 last August. The age of consent in Michigan is 16.
However, county prosecutors allege Malesh violated a section of Michigan’s criminal sexual conduct law that prohibits anyone from using their status to gain access to, or establish a sexual relationship with, a student between 16 and 18 years of age.
