Supporting Document(s)
Statement
On 5/6/24, officer Michael E Cerniauskas responded to a call at 9613 Lakeview Ave SW building 21. The call was a strangulation. This occurred while he was employed with Lakewood, which he still is. I am going to be emailing the attorney general, mayor, internal affairs, ect. I’m a citizen that seen the video, this has put police officers integrity, and question and it seems like there is a pattern of corruption and cover-up.
https://youtu.be/ErGpPSH5Xt8?si=Bsv2w5U2EH2wgeGK
After further investigation I found this is not the first time this officer has been known to intimidate witnesses. He was listed in a lawsuit in the Tacoma Police Department. There is an article on it i will list the link.
What occurred when he worked at Tacoma police dpt. Brooks was alone in a hospital break room when a fellow Tacoma police officer struck up a chat. They’d never met, but within minutes the officer, Michael Cerniauskas, announced that he had lived with white supremacist skinheads, Brooks stated as part of a later lawsuit. To her, the unsolicited announcement had a clear purpose: intimidation.
Cerniauskas, who is white, also brought up his past association with skinheads in separate conversations with two other Black officers over the ensuing days. In his job application, Cerniauskas said that when he was 16, he lived with skinheads for a month, but disassociated with them “after he learned of their full beliefs.”
Tacoma Police Department policy forbids hiring personnel with gang affiliations, and asks whether job candidates have associated with gang members. In his application, obtained by The Seattle Times, Cerniauskas denied associating with gangs, but admitted his association with skinheads.
Cerniauskas had been rejected by the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department and the Washington State Patrol before TPD hired him. A West Point graduate, he was dismissed from the Army under Article 15 for defying an order to not go out drinking, but was honorably discharged and returned as an Army reservist after a decade at TPD.
He was hired in December by the Lakewood Police Department, its chief, Mike Zaro, confirmed. Cerniauskas declined to be interviewed, Zaro said.
Brooks, new to the complaint process at the time, told an assistant chief about her experience with Cerniauskas. But she didn’t submit a written complaint, and her informal complaint was not investigated.
Brooks referred to her conversation with Cerniauskas in a 2005 workplace discrimination lawsuit against the city of Tacoma that a Pierce County judge dismissed.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/black-tacoma-p…
So this is not the fist time this officer has been involved in intimidating witness. This time it is on his body camera. He knows the aggressor is Army they were buddies. So the officer covered up the violent assault that was inflicted on Brian the kid. Ryan the aggressor admitted the kid was leaving and he chocked him out.
Officer c mentions multiple times in the video “ you mess with the bull, you get the horns”
https://cityoflakewoodwa.nextrequest.com/requests/24-651
These are 2 incidents that I know of, now that he has a body cam he is getting caught. There may be more cases, being this is a pattern I’m afraid there are.
