Former Chester cop gets probation for stolen Taser
Provided weapon to former YC News editor Nikolaos Hatziefstathiou
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » A former Chester City police officer was given three years of probation Monday after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges of theft by unlawful taking and misapplication of entrusted property for giving a department Taser device to a private citizen.
Donald T. Jackson Jr., 47, will also provide a DNA sample and will not apply for a position as a police officer during his probationary sentence, according to the negotiated guilty plea worked out by defense counsel Stephen Patrizio and Assistant District Attorney Jason Harmon.
Jackson, a 16-year veteran of the police force, was arrested in August 2019 as part of an investigation into what turned out to be a bogus news story about racism in the county’s Department of Adult Probation and Parole.
Online news outlet YC News “broke” the story on May 25, 2019, claiming it had come into possession of a 2015 email from an Adult Probation and Parole supervisor to a prospective hire containing racist language.
The story created a firestorm of political controversy and sparked a criminal investigation that eventually resulted in the arrest of the website’s then-Editor-in-Chief, Nikolaos Tzima Hatziefstathiou, also known as “Nik the Hat.”
Investigators with the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division served a search warrant at Hatziefstathiou’s Broomall home in June 2019 and recovered several items showing the email had been doctored, but also found a police Taser with the number “14” carved into it, along with two firing cartridges.
The CID Special Investigations Unit determined the Taser was purchased by the Chester City Police Department in October 2011 and was last assigned to a retired Chester police captain.
Upon retirement, the captain returned the Taser to Jackson, who was assigned as the Special Project Officer, the District Attorney’s Office said in a release. The department confirmed with investigators that the Taser was missing from their inventory and had been considered stolen.
A forensic examination of Hatziefstathiou’s cell phone by investigators with CID’s Cyber Crimes Unit revealed several text messages between Hatziefstathiou and Jackson about the Taser beginning in January 2019.
Hatziefstathiou sent a text to Jackson Jan. 24 asking, “Know anyone I can borrow a taser from? I’m going to be in some bad areas while I’m down there this weekend.”
Jackson replied, “I have one. You can’t tell anyone where you got it though.” Hatziefstathiou came to Jackson’s home to collect the Taser later that night, according to the release.
Jackson followed up with a text to Hatziefstathiou in April asking, “How did you make out with that taser?”
according to the release. Hatziefstathiou replied, “Oh yeah! We have one more shoot was gonna use it just in case.” Hatziefstathiou later messaged Jackson, “Didn’t use it luckily lmao,” according to investigators.
When CID detectives confronted Jackson with the texts during an interview in July 2019, he allegedly admitted taking the Taser home from the Chester Police Department and later delivering it to Hatziefstathiou. The release stated that Hatziefstathiou is not legally permitted to possess the Taser or have it delivered to him.
Hatziefstathiou was convicted last year on two counts each of forgery and identity theft, three counts of unsworn falsification to authorities, and one count of tampering with public records or information following a jury trial on the bogus email before Court of Common Pleas Judge John Capuzzi. He was sentenced to two to four years in a state prison in November with three years of probation and is currently housed at the State Correctional In
stitution in Coal Township, according to online records.
With regards to the Taser, Hatziefstathiou pleaded guilty in January to charges of theft, receiving stolen property, making, repairing and selling offensive weapons and conspiracy, all firstdegree misdemeanors, for which he was given a three-year probationary sentence running concurrent to his earlier sentence.
Jackson, represented by defense attorney Stephen Patrizio, had applied for the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program available to non-violent, first-time offenders in December 2019, but was rejected. A later motion to quash the charges was also denied.
Jackson did not comment at Monday’s hearing, but Patrizio described the case as a “tragedy” and an “unfortunate set of circumstances.” He added that Jackson would complete his probation without difficulty.