Darren Wilson isn’t the only Missouri police officer who is in hot water for betraying his trust. A now-former cop in another St. Louis suburb is facing charges that he used a hidden video camera to film the genitals of three people while searching them–including those of a teenage boy.
Earlier this summer, KTVI in St. Louis uncovered evidence that someone had slipped a hidden camera into the bathroom of a gas station in Chesterfield, Missouri; west of St. Louis. The videos were then uploaded to a pornographic Web site. Although KTVI investigative reporter Chris Hayes was still in the process of reporting the story, he found enough to alert the Chesterfield Police Department on May 30. When police traced the address of the Website, they discovered it was hosted by one of their own, David Cerna. Even worse, Cerna had reportedly lured men to his home in Wentzville, another St. Louis suburb, to have oral sex. Cerna then posted the videos of those encounters to his Website. Police from Chesterfield and St. Charles County arrested Cerna on June 6 on two counts of second-degree invasion of privacy–one in St. Louis County (home to Chesterfield) and one in St. Charles County. Needless to say, Cerna is out of a job.
Police obtained a search warrant for Cerna’s home and seized his computer. They then found videos of Cerna filming the genitals of several males between August 2013 and January 2014 while he searched them. One of them was a teenage boy. All of the victims have since identified Cerna as the one who searched them. On Wednesday, Cerna was indicted on additional charges of second-degree invasion of privacy of multiple people and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Cerna is due back in court on October 22. He faces a maximum of 27 years in prison if convicted on all charges. Given that this guy was essentially a voyeur with a badge and that one of his victims was a child, I hope that prosecutors find a way to keep him in prison for something close to that maximum term. There are certain crimes that society simply cannot even appear to tolerate, and the fact this guy was a cop makes it even worse.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC at Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
