SUNRISE, FLA. (WSVN) - A former Boy Scout leader accused of showing pornographic videos to his underage scouts was sentenced to one year probation, Thursday morning.
7News cameras captured Mark Kern as he faced a judge in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom. He said he wants the whole ordeal behind him and has accepted a plea deal.
However, the father of one of the victims was upset with the outcome. “Mark’s no dummy. He’s an intelligent man. He understands the difference between right and wrong,” said the parent. “The point here is, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care where he’s at, who he’s going to hurt, who he’s going to pull over, who he affects by this. He doesn’t.”
The visibly distraught parent then addressed Ker directly, and he did not mince words. “You’re an [expletive] sociopath,” he said.
Back in November 2015, Kern was the parent leader at a Boy Scouts event at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Sunrise. According to one of the victims, he and four other Boy Scouts were looking at girls.
It was at this point when, the victim said, Kern took it to another level, first showing a picture of a naked woman on his cellphone. “He started to play different videos of different couples performing both anal and oral sex on each other,” the victim said while taking the stand. “As an 11-year-old scout at the time, I didn’t know what to think.”
The victim said another incident happened. “When he was driving us home from a camping trip in his car, he began talking about sex and how it felt to receive oral sex from a woman,” said the victim. “It also made me feel weird and uncomfortable.”
“He has five families who have been affected by this,” said the parent. “The way he showed these videos, he was on the steps of the church on a Sunday afternoon.”
The father said he is upset that Kern accepted a plea deal. He was found guilty of a lesser charge: exposing a child to harmful material.
“I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit here and let you guys dilute the charges that are up against this man,” said the parent. “You want to charge him with a petty misdemeanor and time served. What is that? A pat on the back and an ‘attaboy?’ Get out of here.”
The parent then broke down in tears. “If he’s man enough to abuse these boys the way he did, then let him face the charges fully,” he said.
The judge ordered Kern to refrain from contacting the victims or the Boy Scouts of America.
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