Ex-Hartford police chief convicted in drug case

PAW PAW, Mich. (WOOD) — Hartford’s former police chief will spend years in prison after authorities say she stole drugs from a dumpster at the police station.

Tressa Beltran was sentenced Monday to three years, four months and 20 years behind bars.

Search warrants show that the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office received a tip in the summer of 2022 that Beltran was stealing narcotics. In response, investigators left two marked bottles of hydrocodone in a drug box at the police station. When they returned to retrieve the contents of the box, the documents said, they discovered that some of the pills were missing from the marked bottles. Researchers the department invaded on June 30, 2022. They said they found several prescription bottles and loose hydrocodone pills in Beltran’s purse and that she admitted to stealing drugs from the dumpster and using them.

Beltran resigned from her job in January 2023. She was formally charged in May of that year.

She pleaded guilty in April this year to two felonies: delivery or possession of a controlled substance and use of a computer to commit a crime. In exchange for her plea, several other charges were dismissed.

The misdemeanor conviction means she may never be a police officer in Michigan again.