Trooper charged for allegedly falsifying race info, searches on traffic stop reports
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) -
A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper faces charges for allegedly lying on traffic stop reports.
Special prosecutor Kelly King charged Master Sergeant Zach Czerniewski with 12 crimes across Montgomery and Cooper counties. Czerniewski faces ten charges in Montgomery County and two in Cooper County.
The patrol said it began an investigation in December when an employee contacted the command staff of Troop F, which covers most of mid-Missouri. The staff member said they talked to Czerniewski after reviewing some of his traffic stop reports to make sure the racial profiling data on them was correct.
A probable cause statement said that Czerniewski told this employee a supervisor once talked to him about stopping a disproportionate number of minorities compared to the demographics of the area he covered. Czerniewski allegedly told the employee "he does not always accurately record the required information" in that section following that meeting with his supervisor.
"Czerniewski told the member to keep the conversation between the two of them," Cpl. Nathan Shinkle wrote in the probable cause statement.
The tip led to a review of Czerniewski's traffic stop reports and video of them. Shinkle said the review found Czerniewski either reported a Black driver's race as "white" and searched Black drivers without noting it in his reports. Two of them happened in May and June 2021 in Cooper County, while ten of them happened between August and December of 2021 in Montgomery County.
Patrol spokesman Capt. John Hotz told ABC 17 News that the patrol put Czerniewski on administrative leave.
"The Missouri State Highway Patrol takes all matters related to racial profiling and biased policing seriously," Hotz said.
The charges are class B misdemeanors, which carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
Patrol records show Czerniewski started working in Troop F in 2012, covering Cooper and Howard counties at the time.
King, the Warren County prosecutor, will handle both cases. King has handled neighboring Montgomery County's cases since its elected prosecutor was appointed as judge. She said Cooper County's prosecutor asked for a special prosecutor in that case due to a conflict of interest.
Czerniewski's attorney, Shane Farrow, declined to comment on the cases. He is scheduled for a court appearance on April 5 in Montgomery County and April 12 in Cooper County.
