Prosecutors have charged a former Los Angeles police officer with abducting a ransom, which he remains an active reserve officer.
Authorities said the December incident involved former officials and three other men, beginning with a family invasion of the South Korean home. Eric Halem and another man were accused of kidnapping a man and forcing him to over $200,000 in cryptocurrency.
Halem, 37, was arrested Thursday afternoon by members of LAPD’s robbery measures division without bail. Halem served as an officer for about 13 years before becoming a reserve officer. In addition to the kidnapping ransom (probably life imprisonment), he was charged with separate kidnapping, as well as four counts of robbery related to a family invasion.
“Whether you have ever worn a badge and served in law enforcement or not, you will be fully responsible if you participate in a violent crime,” Los Angeles County District. Atti. Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement.
Prosecutors said on December 28, 2024, at about 2:30 a.m., Halem and La resident Mishael Mann allegedly entered an apartment in Koreatown where they put two victims on the victim, transferred money from the victim’s cryptocurrency account, and transferred money from the victim’s cryptocurrency and jewelry before the escape. Prosecutors said Luis Banuelos, 28, and Pierre Louis, 26, of Atelborough, Massachusetts, were accused of waiting outside the apartment as a vacation driver.
Neither Halem nor Mann pleaded guilty when the trial was filed on Monday. Banuelos and Louis pleaded not guilty during the June 11 arraignment. An initial hearing for all four defendants is scheduled to take place on September 24 in downtown Los Angeles.
Halem and Mann of Porter Ranch were not released on bail; the other two were held in lieu of $1.3 million bail. LAPD investigators arrested the alleged evasion driver in May.
After Haarlem’s arrest, LAPD investigators obtained a warrant for searching his home and said they had recovered several guns he owned.
LAPD confirmed the arrest of Halem in an uncategorized statement issued Friday afternoon, but said it was “not related to the department’s investigation into the residential theft in West Valley”.
Halem, who chose to join the department’s Reserve Officer program in 2022, stayed until March after being prosecuted in another case involving suspected insurance fraud in February. Haarlem was deprived of his reserve police power after announcing a criminal case against him.
During his LAPD career, Halem worked as a security consultant and also rented luxury cars to music artists and celebrities.
In 2019, he was hired to provide security for action film producer Randall Emmett. Emmett, the subject of a 2022 investigation, later conducted a HULU documentary that surfaced about allegations of abuse against women and assistants and abuse against business partners. Emmett denied the allegations.
Around the same time, Halem played a small role in the TV show, including “vanderpump Rules” and “Midnight at Switchgrass”.
Earlier this year, he and his brother were charged with insurance fraud to charge prosecutors that it was a meticulous plan related to the January 2023 Bentley crash.
Eric Halem runs Kaypr and La Car Rental Companies, which owns a range of rare luxury fleets, including the 2020 Bentley Continental GT and Neon Green Green Lamborghini Urus.
Prosecutors alleged that Haarlem told his insurance company that his brother borrowed Bentley and crashed on January 5, 2023.
But police investigations found that Bentley was rented by a Los Angeles Drive customer who destroyed the client three days ago. Authorities say Eric Halem filed a fraud claim of more than $200,000 with his insurer, with his personal policy, misrepresenting the details of the accident.
Halem pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony insurance fraud. His brother, Jacob Halem, 32, also pleaded not guilty to insurance fraud.
Court records show that LAPD’s internal affairs investigators are making similar charges against Halem after his department’s career ends.
