By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A Lyon Township man charged with trying to impersonate a police officer and child abuse has been sentenced.

53-year-old Leonard Harris was originally charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and flashing lights and cocaine possession, following his arrest in May of 2020 along with 26-year-old Leanna Paige Garcia-Stowe. The weapons charge was dismissed as part of a plea deal reached and Harris was sentenced earlier this month to serve 18 months to 15 years in prison with credit for 140 days served.

Harris was also charged with 3rd degree child abuse in a separate case and pleaded no contest. For that, he was sentenced to 210 days in jail with 107 days credit, and ordered to serve 36 months of probation.

The couple was pulled over by undercover Oakland County Sheriff’s detectives in the Kensington Place mobile home community at Grand River and Kent Lake Road. Officers said the pair began following the undercover vehicle in an SUV with police-style lights in the windshield. Two children, ages 1 and 2, were also inside the SUV at the time.

A background check determined that Harris was a convicted felon and in illegal possession of a police-style emergency LED flashing light, along with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol; a semi-automatic starter pistol; a police-style badge; a set of police handcuffs; a police scanner and a spotlight. Also discovered in the vehicle was a plastic straw containing suspected cocaine residue. Harris reportedly admitted to the detectives he had used the police lights and other equipment to impersonate a police officer. After impounding the SUV, police turned over the two children to the custody of their grandmother.

Garcia-Stowe previously pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon and cocaine possession and was sentenced to six months in jail.