Former Sumner counselor accused of kissing patient pleads guilty. He’d been in trouble before
This story has been updated.
A former Sumner rehab counselor has pleaded guilty after being accused of forcibly kissing one of his patients in 2019.
Robert Cerka entered a guilty plea Feb. 11 after prosecutors removed the sexual motivation clause from the fourth-degree assault charge. Judge Timothy Jenkins of the Sumner Municipal Court is scheduled to sentence Cerka on April 15 after the defendant receives a psycho-sexual evaluation, according to the case docket.
In 2018, a separate investigation by the state Department of Health found he’d run a counseling practice without the proper licensing, according to records obtained by the Puyallup Herald through a records request.
Cerka’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
According to a state database on medical licenses, Cerka surrendered his three licenses in 2019: Substance Use Disorder Professional Trainee Certification, Counselor Agency Affiliated Registration, and Marriage and Family Therapist Associate License. Enforcement action was taken against all three licenses, the database said.
“He agreed never to reapply or to resume practice in Washington,” Gordon MacCracken, spokesperson for the state health department, said in an email.
Cerka, 50, is in court for his time as a counselor at Royal Life Center. The facility is a drug-and-alcohol detox and rehab center, according to the company website. The former patient, then 22, was assigned Cerka as her counselor from March 17 through April 1, 2019, according to police reports obtained by The News Tribune.
After a counseling session in late March, Cerka got up from his desk and followed the woman to the door. He cornered her between the door and the closet and kissed her, the police report said.
He worked at the Royal Life Centers at Puget Sound from January 2019 to April 2019, according to DOH records.
Records also indicate Cerka told the woman he played for the Seattle Seahawks in the 1990s and that he worked as a Chippendales stripper.
Cerka allegedly “showed her some of his related dance routines, while they were alone in his office. Patient A stated this again made her feel extremely uncomfortable,” the Department of Health records say.
The patient told DOH investigators she felt completely “trapped,” unable to leave the facility or call for help, because inpatient clients do not have access to cell phones and she was not from the area.
Cerka told investigators he kissed the patient once, “getting suckered into the emotions,” and said that it was “really stupid.”
In 2018, a complaint was filed against Cerka for claiming that he was a psychologist at “A New Beginning Family & Trauma Counseling” in Puyallup after a patient discovered he was not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist.
Department of Health records say he was regularly seeing patients from 2017 to 2018.
In March 2019, Cerka signed a “Stipulated Findings of Fact” with the Department of Health, saying that from 2017 to 2018 he misrepresented himself as a marriage and family therapist and failed to provide a disclosure form that he was an associate under the supervision of an approved supervisor.
Cerka was listed as one of the company’s owners. The counseling center has been dissolved, according to the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.
State investigations also allege Cerka lied about being a former NFL football player, his military career and military honors he never received.
Records show Cerka told investigators when asked about his alleged service with Special Forces and Delta Team, Purple Hearts and paid practice with the Seattle Seahawks that he had not been honest.
The state has also lodged a complaint against Royal Life Treatment Center for failure and lack of diligence over the patient’s care, according to police documents.
The Royal Life Centers CEO, Frank Cid, said he has not received a complaint from the state, and he would be shocked if he did.
“We are the ones that brought it to the state,” Cid told The Puyallup Herald after publication. “We went beyond the duty and reported it. We felt it was our duty to report it, and we did.”
Cid said the company takes this incident seriously and does its best to prevent boundaries being crossed.
“We will try our best to prevent it and conduct trainings on that they need to have boundaries with the guests,” he said. “Other than the training and doing what can, people will do what they will do and it’s beyond our control.”
Cid said Royal Life Centers screens staff, and if they would have been aware of his previous run-in with the state, Cerka would have been disqualified from the position.
This story was originally published February 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
