LOS ANGELES—A retired police sergeant-turned-TV reporter was acquitted Monday of allegations he inappropriately touched two 12-year-old boys aboard a cruise ship last fall.
A federal jury deliberated for about two hours before finding Roderick “Rod” Bernsen not guilty of two counts of abusive sexual contact with a minor. The charges carried a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
“My life will never be the same,” Bernsen said outside court. “I will have to live with the stigma every day of my life.”
Prosecutors declined comment after the verdict was announced.
Bernsen, who now lives in Colorado, was arrested Oct. 7 by FBI agents investigating a complaint by the mother of one of the boys.
Authorities said the boys claimed Bernsen tried to engage them in talk about puberty and erections while exposing himself while in the ship’s spa area. They alleged Bernsen then inappropriately touched one boy with his toe as the child left the sauna and slapped the other’s bare buttocks.
Bernsen denied touching the boys or making sexual remarks to them.
Bernsen was KTTV-TV’s law enforcement specialist until he left the station in 2004. His broadcasting career followed service in the Los Angeles Police Department as a sergeant and spokesman.
From late 2005 until May 2006, he filled in as a KFI-AM radio talk show host.
