Leo Haley: Retired Philly police inspector arrested for alleged child luring attempt

A retired Philadelphia Police inspector – who is also a registered sex offender – was arrested on Thursday for allegedly attempting to lure an 8-year-old Roxborough girl into his car last month.

Police said that 72-year-old Leo Haley, himself a 26-year force veteran, approached the child as she was walking on the 7000 block of Voight Road and attempted to force her into
his vehicle around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 17. Haley, of the 4300 block of Lauriston Street in Roxborough, is charged with unlawful restraint, making terroristic threats, luring a child into a motor vehicle and harassment. He was arraigned Thursday night and jailed at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in lieu of 10 percent of $1 million bail.

Haley is a registered sex offender currently on probation after he was arrested during a July 2010 sting in which investigators reportedly found at least 200 child pornography videos on a laptop inside his Roxborough home. He was charged in that case with nearly 50 counts of child pornography possession and six counts of dissemination. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 6, 2011 to a number of those charges, for which he was given multiple concurrent sentences of six to 23 months in prison, as well as electronic monitoring and seven years’ probation. Haley has been classified as a “lifetime offender,” according to the state database’s risk level assessment.

Haley joined the Philadelphia Police Department in 1970. According to multiple archival reports, he was one of six staff members abruptly transferred from the office of former Commissioner Gregore Sambor in 1985 and later served as the spokesman for the now-defunct 90th District, which oversaw Philadelphia’s parks system. Haley was in 1992 promoted to the rank of inspector as part of a settlement in a lawsuit alleging that due to political cronyism, eight department officials were passed over for promotions in favor of officers who scored lower on the civil service examination.

Haley retired in 1996 as a 26-year veteran of the force. He
is next due in court for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 27.