A staffer for Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine’s Missouri U.S. Senate campaign has been fired after being arrested on a sexual misconduct allegation, Breitbart News has learned.
John Lark Herron, 42, was arrested on Oct. 24 for “invasion of privacy” at the Mid-County Family YMCA in Brentwood, Missouri, according to a Brentwood Police Department incident report. Police listed the alleged victim as a juvenile.
Herron is accused of violating statute 565.252, which states in part:
Invasion of privacy, penalty. — 1. A person commits the offense of invasion of privacy if he or she knowingly:
(1) Photographs, films, videotapes, produces, or otherwise creates an image of another person, without the person’s consent, while the person is in a state of full or partial nudity and is in a place where one would have a reasonable expectation of privacy; or
(2) Photographs, films, videotapes, produces, or otherwise creates an image of another person under or through the clothing worn by that other person for the purpose of viewing the body of or the undergarments worn by that other person without that person’s consent.
Herron, whom police listed as a “staffer” for Valentine, was booked into jail and released on the same day, according to the booking sheet. However, Soros-backed St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell appears to not have filed any official charges against Herron as of Wednesday evening. Breitbart News reached out to Bell’s office for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Trudy Busch Valentine’s campaign did provide a brief response to questions about Herron’s arrest and involvement with the campaign.
John Lark Herron Report Incident by Breitbart News on Scribd
“As soon as we became aware of this, we took immediate action and he is no longer an employee of the campaign,” the campaign said on Wednesday via email.
They did not answer how long Herron worked for the campaign, though Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show the campaign disbursed a $3,929.65 salary to him on Sept. 15, 2022, for “administrative” purposes.
Herron and his emergency contact listed on the booking sheet did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
The arrest occurred just two weeks before the Busch Beer heiress and Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt face off in the race to fill retiring Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-MO) seat. Recent polling shows Schmitt leading Valentine by double digits, 51 percent to 39 percent.