Send us Fan Mail

Episode 3 of The Worst-Kept Secret, an ongoing investigation into Rocky River Police Department SRO Michael Bernhardt, covers what the department knew, when they knew it, and what everyone around Bernhardt did or failed to do with that information.

Bernhardt's second wife, a 30-year special education coordinator at Rocky River High School, describes going to the superintendent in person to report her husband. The official administrative leave letter signed by Chief Lichtman described her as an anonymous faculty member. She then drove to special prosecutor Michael Maloney's law office in Westlake with a written statement. His secretary could not accept it. She called back multiple times over the following weeks. The investigation was filed without her formal account.

Bernhardt's first wife, a police officer with 19 years at Fairview Park PD, sat down with BCI agents in July 2024 and described what she believes the department knew going back over 20 years. She believes Chief Lichtman knew something was happening at the library overtime shifts where Bernhardt first encountered the first victim. Lichtman denies any knowledge prior to 2023. Both accounts are on the record.

An informal determination made within the department in the early 2000s, that Bernhardt had committed no crime due to a lack of physical contact, was legally wrong under ORC 2907.03(A)(7). No one with actual legal authority ever reviewed it. Bernhardt remained the Rocky River SRO for 20 more years.

Bernhardt and Lichtman both served on the internet crimes against children task force. Bernhardt's role was to pose online and engage with predators. His first wife's assessment, stated plainly to BCI agents in July 2024: little did we know he was one.

The special prosecutor's file went to the city with an open question about seizing Bernhardt's phone for forensic analysis. That question appears to have never been formally answered. The union was denied the full investigative file. The public was told no responsive records existed.

On July 8, 2026, a six-part public records request was filed to law director Michael O'Shea's office. This series follows it.

Full series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDpI0ydpXyzWIPEpdUAM4WZOFT6XVBjkM

www.theinfamousexchief.com

Support the show

Visit: https://www.liinks.co/the.infamous.exchief