Missouri Mayor Not Elected in Citywide Election Arrested on 9 Sexual Felony Accounts

Mike Cornell Jr. was arrested on January 15, 2026. He is proclaimed as the mayor of Riverview, Missouri. He was charged with nine serious felony counts.

These include four counts of second-degree statutory sodomy. These involved a victim under 17. There are also three counts of first-degree sodomy or attempted sodomy.

Additionally, there is one count of first-degree harassment and one count of possession of child pornography.

He’s currently being held on a $1 million cash-only bond.

What’s especially disturbing is that this isn’t the first set of serious accusations against him.

Before these criminal charges, multiple lawsuits had already been filed against Cornell and the city by former employees. They alleged sexual harassment, wrongful termination for rejecting advances, creating a hostile work environment, and other misconduct.

There were also prior reports and claims related to inappropriate behavior. These included allegations of sexual assault. There were claims of assault on a police department employee and impersonating an officer.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety verified that a peace officer license has never been issued to a person named Michael Cornell Jr.

However, Cornell has worked in the law enforcement field in other roles.

Cornell joined the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department as a recruit in training in 2007, according to a press release from the department. However, Cornell resigned from the training program that same year.

SLMPD said he then worked as a civilian processing clerk from 2008 to 2014. He was suspended without pay after an internal affairs investigation. The investigation led to a slew of charges against him for sexual assault and impersonating an officer.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, several of those charges were dropped and Cornell pleaded guilty to impersonating an officer. That charge was ultimately expunged in December 2021.

How does someone like that become mayor? Maybe, it is because he was installed without a public citizens election.

On November 23, 2020, Cornell was elected the youngest member of the NAACP Executive Committee at age 33. By November 2022, he was reelected to serve on this same NAACP Committee.

Also, that same year 2022, he passed the requirements set up by the State of Missouri to become a Licensed Private Investigator.

By April 4th, 2023, the system noted that it was the first time African Americans held a quorum on the “City of Riverview Board of Trustees.”

By May 31, that Board passed Resolution number 2023-2 allowing Cornell, their Chairman of the Board of Trustees to be addressed as “Mayor to the Public” without a citizen election.