The most recent season of the true crime podcast “Betrayal” looks into the sexual misconduct of former Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) Lieutenant Joel Kern. According to Colorado’s Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) database, Kern was decertified in December 2022, shortly after his retirement. “Betrayal” used in-depth interviews with Kern’s former spouse and family, audio of internal affairs (IA) interviews obtained via Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests, and interviews with former CSPD officers to provide a complete account of the events leading to Kern’s POST decertification.
“Betrayal” host Andrea Gunning said she initially considered the story for a one-off weekly episode before turning it into to a 10-episode season. “[Kern’s ex] wrote us originally about her husband, who was a former CSPD officer, and he had been caught having sexual relations in a cop car,” said Gunning during an interview with Colorado Times Recorder. “When we were initially looking to do the story for the [weekly episode], I said, ‘You know, we need more documentation. We need to figure out what really happened here.’ That was when our pursuit to file paperwork to get access to the IA files, and it took a while, but once we got them, we realized that there was a larger story here.”
Kern’s record of misconduct began in 2019, when he was accused by a local reporter of sexually harassment while serving as the interim public information officer, the CSPD representative responsible for interacting with members of the media. “Betrayal” obtained the noted written by the anonymous reporter, and a recording of the subsequent IA interview with her.
“I’m writing to voice my concerns about naming Lt. Joel Kern to the next PIO,” wrote the reporter in 2019. “To accuse anyone of inappropriate behavior is a risk, but to accuse an officer, especially one that controls which media members get information, and how fast, could be career suicide. But that is what most emboldened me to voice my concerns now.”
During the IA interview, the reporter notes that Kern asked her to download WhatsApp and began messaging her. “He would use words that would be suggestive or language that would be suggestive and it felt to me like a test to see how I took it,” she told the IA officer. “He brought up sexual relations with his wife … he mentioned like something along the lines of ‘You know, maybe I’ll get lucky’ or ‘When you have kids, the only time you have sex is when you’re away’ or something like that obviously was inappropriate and kind of opened the door if I wanted to talk about sexual relations.”
While Kern was investigated and removed from his position as interim PIO, he wasn’t otherwise disciplined. “The 2019 case with the reporter, what was disappointing to me, hearing that IA interview, is that [CSPD] did what they needed to do,” said Gunning. “They got a complaint, they looked into it, they sat Joel down. The interview was tense at the top, but it quickly turned … what was shocking to me was how quickly the tension kind of deflates. What does that say? There was no discipline in that situation. He stepped down from the PIO job, which made it sound like you get the right thing, but really there was no discipline. For me, the 2019 IA investigation was more disappointing because there’s a few jokes during that investigation if you listen to it, and it turns lighthearted. What message is that really sending to someone that you’re really trying to make understand this is really a disciplinary situation? Are you encouraging this individual to make different decisions in the future? That reporter took a risk coming in. Here’s an individual making a claim that other reporters are at risk if he is in the job. This is a serious issue, so I was disappointed in how lighthearted it felt on the second half of the interview.”
Kern remained a CSPD. In 2020, Kern was the voice of CSPD’s Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), giving dispersal orders to Black Lives Matters protesters in Colorado Springs following the murder of George Floyd. “Betrayal” notes that Kern told his former wife that bruises and abrasions obtained during this period were due to actions of protesters — thrown rocks or frozen water bottles — but instead Kern obtained those bruises during an affair with another CSPD employee.
“We did make a few requests, other internal affairs, investigation requests involving other [employees] and CSPD argued that they weren’t of public interest,” said Gunning. “Whatever was happening was internally. I don’t know who those individuals were that he was having relationships with, but it was just all internal. What was surprising to me when we were working on the season, was that it was a well-known secret that [Kern] was having affairs, whether it be with other people at CSPD or civilians. That was what was shocking to me culturally. I can’t speak to the individual people and name those people, but what I can speak to is what he was having affairs in his office during work hours, and people knew about it.”
While Kern misrepresented his injuries as a result of the protests, many of the protesters arrested by CSPD in the summer of 2020 went on to file lawsuits, many of which have been settled, citing excessive use of force.
In 2022, Kern came under investigation again, this time for having sex with a woman he met on FetLife, a social networking platform specifically designed for individuals interested in BDSM, fetishism, kink, and alternative lifestyles, in the back seat of his patrol car. Ultimately, Kern was not disciplined for that per se, but because he lied to IA officers during his interview. The meeting minutes for the December 2022 POST Board note, “On July 19, 2022, CSPD notified Colorado Peace Officer Standards & Training that the Respondent [Kern] knowingly made an untruthful statement concerning a material fact or omitted a material fact during an internal affairs investigation and during an administrative investigation and/or disciplinary process on March 21, 2022.”
Despite actions being taken by the POST board, Kern was able to retire without receiving any kind of formal discipline. “Betrayal” spoke with Rocky Mountain PBS reporter Carly Rose about her 2024 reporting, which found a total of 158 officers who “resigned/retired in lieu of termination” or “resigned/retired while under investigation” since January 2022. Over the same time period, 119 officers were fired.
“I think that in the larger conversation, this is not a case of the most egregious police misconduct by any means,” said Gunning. “I think it was really an exploration of what does culture at your police department mean? And what does integrity mean? And what does truthfulness mean? I think those three things are really important for society and for a person in your community to really sit with and think about. Because for me, this season was an education on why the truth is so important. Once the truth has been compromised, the public loses faith in the system.”
CSPD declined to comment on this story.
All 10 episodes of “Betrayal” Season 4 are available on iHeartMedia, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major platforms.
