Huntington Beach police officer charged with impersonating another officer online
A Huntington Beach Police Department officer has been charged with impersonating a fellow officer online, according to a statement from the Orange County district attorney’s office.
Steven Tennant, 32, of Yorba Linda is charged with two misdemeanor counts of internet impersonation for the purpose of harming, intimidating, threatening and defrauding. If convicted of both counts, he faces a maximum sentence of two years in Orange County Jail, according to the statement.
The district attorney’s office said Tennant is accused of posting a fellow officer’s photo and personal cellphone number on the dating website Doublelist.com, on Sept. 20 and 26.
The other officer was made aware of the ads when he started receiving texts from unknown numbers referencing the internet postings that featured his picture and phone number.
The ads were posted after the other officer began dating Tennant’s ex-girlfriend. The Huntington Beach Police Department initiated an investigation after the officer reported the harassment to a supervisor.
“Impersonating another individual on the internet is not a joke,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “It is a crime that could result in serious harm. This is not ‘boys will be boys’ or ‘cops will be cops’ behavior. It is curious and beyond disturbing that a sworn police officer would engage in such reckless behavior to endanger the safety of a fellow officer.”
Tennant is scheduled to be arraigned on May 5 at the Orange County Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.
Szabo writes for Times Community News.
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