2nd St. Cloud Man Charged With Sexually Assaulting Runaway Girl

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- A second St. Cloud man has now been charged with sexual assault against a runaway girl earlier this month.

Thirty-two-year-old Robert Bernard is charged with 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim between the ages of 14 and 15 years old.

Charges filed in Stearns County District Court allege Bernard went with the girl to a north St. Cloud apartment building and had sexual intercourse with the girl in a stairwell.

The victim later told police that she was sexually assaulted by more than one man while she and another girl were runaways. The other man charged in the case is 26-year-old Andre Sudor Jr.

Police made contact with Bernard at an apartment in the 500 block of 8th Avenue South the morning of May 5th after the second runaway girl had called police to report the incidents.

The victim was found the following day and gave a statement to the police about the assaults.

Court records show Bernard admitted to having intercourse with the victim but said she told him that she was 19 years old and the other girl said she was 18 years old.

Bernard allegedly took officers to an apartment building in the 600 block of 12th Avenue North where the sexual assault allegedly took place. Video surveillance from the apartment building shows Bernard, the girl, and another man going up a staircase and off video before returning about 50 minutes later.