JONATHAN TURLEY

Missouri Man Applies For State Highway Patrol And Ends Up With 20 Years In Prison

Everyone has had a bad job interview experience. However, few have had the Cedric Lovejoy’s experience. Lovejoy interviewed for a state police job with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and ended up sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Lovejoy, 29, applied for the position and was asked to do a standard pre-employment polygraph examination. During the examination, it was revealed that he filmed a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old. A later search of his computer found the video from July 2009 that he originally made on his cellphone. He was then arrested on two counts of sexually exploiting a child.

Faced with his own confession and the videotape, he had little choice but to plead guilty to using a minor to produce child pornography. It is not much of a plea. It still carries a 15 year minimum sentence.

That is a longer commitment to join law enforcement than Lovejoy no doubt intended.