By Tony Plohetski
American-Statesman Staff
AUSTIN, Texas — During a four-month period in 2006, Austin police officer Scott Lando hired for sex a woman he’d met while investigating a report that she was assaulted, sometimes meeting her while he was on duty and at least once taking her to his house, according to a search warrant affidavit.
As part of her payment, Lando opened his wife’s closet to the woman, allowing her to take a pair of black Harley-Davidson leather boots that were still in the box, jewel-studded jeans and a pink and yellow top, the affidavit said.
Lando, 45, told the woman his wife “would never miss” the clothes, according to the document.
The woman, Denise Pfeifer, also told investigators that Lando took her on shopping trips to Wal-Mart and a North Austin Payless ShoeSource, paid for a meal at a restaurant on North Lamar Boulevard and allowed her to take a bath in a whirlpool tub at his Cedar Park home, the affidavit said.
Police officials said Wednesday that Lando, who has been an officer for five years and is assigned to patrol in North Central Austin, has been placed on paid leave pending criminal and internal affairs investigations.
Authorities searched his home late last month to verify whether the woman had accurately described its interior. Investigators also took photographs of Lando’s tattoos, which the affidavit said normally would be covered by clothing.
“We will leave no stone unturned to get to the truth and will take appropriate action, if any,” Police Chief Art Acevedo said.
Lando’s attorney, Travis Williamson, said his client denies having a relationship with the woman.
“If she has been in his house, it was without his knowledge or permission,” Williamson said.
Pfeifer was sentenced to five years in prison in 2001 on five charges of burglary of a habitation.
Records show that she was released on parole in March 2004 but was sent back to prison in June on a probation violation.
She has no prostitution convictions, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
In June, the affidavit says, detectives went to the Travis County Jail to interview a woman who had been arrested on prostitution charges. She told them that a woman she knew was “doing tricks” with Lando.
Investigators interviewed Pfeifer at a prison in Burnet. She told them that she had sex with Lando several times from June to September 2006. Pfeifer told detectives that she met Lando after calling police to report that she had been assaulted, although the affidavit said investigators never found a police report for the assault.
The document said Lando told Pfeifer that he wanted to have sex with her and that she told him “that it was going to cost him.” He paid her $70, the affidavit said.
Pfeifer told police that Lando drove her in his patrol car to a construction site, where they had sex.
The affidavit said Pfeifer told investigators that the last time they met, Lando took her to his house. She described the home in detail to police, including that it was being remodeled.
Police said in the affidavit that on a preliminary visit to Lando’s house, they noticed several things that appeared as Pfeifer described.
They also met with Lando’s wife, who told them that she was missing items from her closet but assumed they had been taken by “a neighborhood kid.”
Williamson said Lando’s wife has told him that her husband was with her when the items were stolen.
Copyright 2008 The Austin American-Statesman