Menasha Police Officer Cristian Morales has been arrested in Appleton on suspicion of stalking. (Photo courtesy Outagamie County Jail)
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A former Menasha police officer pleaded no contest Monday to accessing a license plate recognition program to track his ex-girlfriend, and was sentenced to six months in jail, as the judge rejected the plea deal calling for half that time behind bars.
Cristian Morales, 32, was convicted of one count of misconduct in office.
He was also placed on probation for three years by Judge Mark Schroeder. Morales was fined $250, and is prohibited from working as a law enforcement officer or accessing the Flock system.
Before the sentence was issued, the victim addressed the court. She described repeated acts of physical abuse, the fear he generated by tracking her location, and other manipulative tactics Morales used – all while, in her view, Morales viewed himself as untouchable because of his job as an officer.
“I am not asking the court to sentence Cristian out of anger. I am asking the court to recognize the seriousness of what happened to me. The repeated nature of misconduct. The misuse of authority. And, the lasting consequences I have had to live with,” the woman said. “Accountability matters.”
Morales apologized, saying he was proud to serve the community he grew up in, but lost it through a “moment of desperation.”
“I have learned from my actions. And I know that the only thing I can do now is grow, make better decisions, and prove through my actions that I have learned from this. I respectfully ask for the court to consider my remorse and allow me the opportunity to move forward and become a better person from this experience, Morales said.
Judge Schroeder noted he took the same oath as Morales to protect the Constitutions of Wisconsin and the United States. The judge criticized Morales as an “oathbreaker” whose actions undermined the public’s faith in anyone in all branches of government who take that oath.
“But when they do that while simultaneously breaching their oath less than a year after it was administered for the purposes of exercising control and domination over somebody they’re supposed to be in a relationship. In an abusive way that forms part of the basis for other law abiding law enforcement officers who take their oath seriously to be stripped of the respect to which they have otherwise earned and stripped of tools which they might otherwise lawfully utilize to keep their community safe that is deeply offensive to this court,” the judge said.
No one is all good or all bad, the judge noted.
“Mr. Morales, like all of us, I suppose, falls somewhere in between. What makes him different was that he abused his authority. He sought out the privilege of trying to keep his community safe from protecting the public in the communities in which he resided. Sought out the tools that are handed to him as a result of that oath that he took and then broke. Sought out those tools for the purposes that are designed to keep people safe – and they do – and then abused it for his own personal and nefarious purposes,” Judge Schroeder said.
According to the complaint, Morales’ ex-girlfriend complained he had used the Flock system to monitor her location. A review of Morales’ activity showed he tried to use it five different times for her vehicle in early October.
“Cristian indicated that “desperation, and bad judgment, combined with a lack of sleep”, contributed to his decision to use Flock. He also indicated he knew his decision to use Flock was wrong, but it was out of a pure moment of “desperation and lack of judgment,” the complaint states.
The Menasha Police Department said Morales was placed on administrative leave after he arrest. He resigned earlier this year.
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