A 7 ½ year veteran of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is under arrest for allegedly shoplifting a $49 jar of supplements from a local gym.
44-year-old Julio Cerpa faces one count of petit theft. Undersheriff Dwain Senterfitt says JSO was contacted by the Bailey’s Gym on Merrill Road after they caught surveillance footage of Cerpa apparently taking the supplements. Senterfitt says the video showed Cerpa picking up the jar, looking around, putting it back and noting where the cameras were.
“It really looks like he’s waiting for the area to clear out of people,” Senterfitt says.
Cerpa soon picked the jar up again, ducked out of the view of cameras, and resurfaced with nothing in his hands, according to Senterfitt.
“He originally said that he told the girl at the Bailey’s to put it on his account but very clearly on the video he doesn’t even look at the girl at the counter, and the girl at the counter says she doesn’t know who he is,” Senterfitt says.
Cerpa is a narcotics detective, but has now been stripped of his police duties. He has been reassigned to an administrative role answering phones pending the resolution of the charge facing him. Senterfitt says Cerpa is still employed because he is charged with a misdemeanor, so the civil service employe’s contract requires the investigation to be complete before any further action is taken.
Cerpa has no prior criminal act on his record and there is no indication he has done something like this before, according to Senterfitt. He was also unaware of any financial problem or motive that would have led him to shoplift something like this.
The concise employment history obtained by WOKV shows Cerpa has 11 prior citizen complaints and one vehicle accident on his record. Complaints of rudeness from December 2007 and June 2008 both resulted in a supervisor referral. Another referral was issued in July 2009 for unnecessary force, and again in April 2010 for harassment. In December 2011, Cerpa received a written reprimand for failure to conform to work standards.
The remaining complaints were not upheld and the accident, which happened earlier this month, remains under investigation.