Wisconsin Cop Regularly Smoked Crack While on Duty

A Platteville police officer who allegedly smoked crack cocaine while on duty was charged in federal court Tuesday with keeping a drug house.

Michelle V. Salentine, 28, who has been with the department since 2004, appeared in U.S. District Court and was ordered held in jail until a detention hearing, to be set at a later date.

Salentine remained in the Dane County Jail Tuesday night. Platteville Police Chief Doug McKinley declined to comment on the case.

According to a complaint and affidavit filed in federal court, Salentine was arrested on Monday after she arrived for a night patrol shift. She admitted to authorities, the affidavit states, that she had been smoking crack four to six times a week for about a year, and that she and another person who lives with her occasionally drove to Milwaukee to buy crack.

According to the affidavit, a confidential informant who has a drug-related criminal history told the FBI on Feb. 8 that Salentine regularly smokes crack at her home on Hathaway Street in Platteville and at another address in Platteville, including occasions when she was in uniform as a Platteville police officer.

In a text message to a law enforcement officer on March 2, the informant wrote that Salentine "came by around 12 a.m. in her squad, took her gun off, left it on the bed and sat in the kitchen," the affidavit states.

Two days later, an officer received another text message from the informant about 1:35 a.m. saying that Salentine was smoking crack there and in her squad car and was getting ready to go back on duty. The informant, wearing a recording device, was also with Salentine at the officer's home while she smoked crack on April 14, according to the affidavit.

FBI agents executed a search warrant at Salentine's home on Monday, where they found marijuana and crack cocaine paraphernalia.

Another person who was interviewed during the investigation told the FBI that she sold crack cocaine to Salentine about 20 times since October and saw Salentine smoke it many times before going on duty. She said she has also seen Salentine use powder cocaine and smoke marijuana, the affidavit states.