Former Cedar Hill police officer's response to allegations he solicited sex while on duty: "That was the wrong field to play"
CEDAR HILL — When a former Cedar Hill police officer was accused of soliciting sex from a DWI suspect, he was already under investigation for similar behavior with a victim of domestic violence, internal records reveal.
Video obtained by CBS News Texas show a 24-year-old woman came to the police department in October following a 911 call one night earlier, in which she said her ex-boyfriend was hitting her.
DETECTIVE: What about this scar? Are all these scars from (your ex-boyfriend)?
WOMAN: Uh, yes sir.
DETECTIVE: All of them?
WOMAN: Um-hmm.
The conversation took a turn when she let something else slip: After the two officers who responded to her call left, one came back.
WOMAN: One of the officers came back and basically tried to get me to do things with him.
DETECTIVE: Trying to do what?
WOMAN: Things with him.
DETECTIVE: What specifically did he say?
WOMAN: So, he asked me to go to his car.
DETECTIVE: To go to his squad car
WOMAN: Hm-mm.. well, to go outside with him.
A detective asked her to clarify.
DETECTIVE: So what specifically did he just say, hey you want to go outside?
WOMAN: Yeah he came on and said you look good, you see how I was looking at you. And I was like no I didn't notice. And he was like, well you want to come downstairs with me? And I was like, no I got my son in here, I'm trying to cook.
The officer was Don Mercer, who'd been on the job a little more than a year.
While the woman did not want to file a complaint, the department opened its own internal investigation, during which Mercer was questioned by an internal affairs investigator about his interaction with the victim he'd been sent to help.
INVESTIGATOR: You noticed that she had physical injuries?
MERCER: Yeah. She had a mark on her head. Yeah.
INVESTIGATOR: So, would you agree that she had in fact been a victim of an assault that night?
MERCER: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR: Okay.
Mercer, though, said he thought the woman was coming onto him.
MERCER: I had asked her, I said, "Hey, you, you keep, like, biting your, you know…" She was like, kind of like biting her lips, like, look at me up and down. Like, I kind of took that as flirting in a sexual way and being in the situation that, you know, was just going on. Probably shouldn't have took it that way, but I did. I'm not gonna lie to you, I did. So I said, "How you, you know, what are you thinking about right now? Are you thinking about having sex with me or something?" Um, and at the time was, now I look back at it, was that a messed-up thing to say? Yeah, but I wasn't thinking about it at the time. Um, I said that and she replied, she laughed, and she was like, "Uh, I don't know." So, I said, "Well, if I was to speak my mind as well, I would agree to say, 'Hey, I would do the same.' I would have sex with you as well."
Both Mercer and the victim say the conversation ended with Mercer putting his personal number in her phone, something Mercer admitted he'd done before.
INVESTIGATOR: Have you ever given your phone number to a violator on a traffic stop?
MERCER: I have.
INVESTIGATOR: Okay. For what purpose?
MERCER: Uh, we were just - conversational purposes.
INVESTIGATOR: Okay. And so how many times would you say that that's happened?
MERCER: Since I've been on patrol, Captain.. maybe two or three times. I can't really put an exact number on, but I have done it before.
That includes a traffic stop from April.
Mercer pulled a woman over for a headlight violation and wrote her a warning.
Then he turned off his body camera, took her phone, and put his phone number in it.
The department determined Mercer's behavior at the domestic violence call constituted violations of department policies, including dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming of an officer.
In the end, even he admitted it was wrong.
MERCER: I've just kind of been playing the, you know, playing the field. Um, and that was the wrong field to play at the time.
In the midst of its internal investigation, the department says it received an unrelated report of Mercer soliciting oral sex from a woman he'd arrested for DWI in August.
The Texas Rangers determined in that case he had committed the crime and charged him with official oppression.
Mercer's attorney, Robert Huseman, released a statement saying his client has devoted his life to helping others and asking the public not to rush to judgment.