Adrienne Davis
A former Greenfield police officer is charged with recording underage girls in a high school locker room while working at a private Milwaukee school.
Fernando Bustos, 41, of Greendale, faces a felony count of invasion of privacy with a surveillance device regarding an incident where a victim is under 18 years old.
Bustos worked as a security coordinator for Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, 1818 W. National Ave. in Milwaukee, before being fired, according to a criminal complaint. School officials did not immediately respond for comment.
Bustos served as a Greenfield police officer until 2020, when he voluntarily resigned, according to the Greenfield Police Department.
Documents show Bustos resigned after an incident where he mishandled evidence, which put him on the Brady list, a national documentation of law enforcement officers with a history of dishonesty, bias or past crimes. The archive can affect officers' credibility as a witness in court hearings.
Bustos was recorded setting up a camera at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
According to the complaint:
On Feb. 19, school officials told Milwaukee police officers Bustos was ordered to turn over his school laptop and iPhone after being fired, but he refused to give the items back. Bustos demanded to be allowed to remove personal items from the electronics before returning them.
Bustos also told staff he needed to retrieve personal property from a staff locker room before leaving. He was escorted by a staff member into the locker room before saying, "You wouldn’t want people to think the wrong thing of us in here together.”
Because of this comment, the staff member waited by the doorway, but noticed Bustos was taking an unusual amount of time to retrieve his personal belongings.
Bustos eventually exited the locker room with two full backpacks. Bustos showed the staff member a pair of shoes in one backpack but refused to open the other backpack.
A subsequent inventory of property items left inside Busto's office included a camera with an SD card inside. Staff checked the SD card and found it contained hundreds of 10-second videos taken inside the high school girls locker room.
The videos were recorded between May 21, 2024, to Feb. 1, 2025, according to the complaint.
A detective said a review of 379 videos with timestamps between Oct. 7 and 8 included one showing Bustos installing a camera inside the high school girl's locker room positioned toward the bathroom sinks. The footage showed Bustos closing a locker and locking it with a padlock.
No other cameras were found after police conducted a sweep of the school. Staff told officers the locker room is only used by female students in grades nine through 12.
Documents show former Greenfield officer was investigated before his 2020 resignation
Bustos was investigated for mishandling evidence ahead of him resigning from the Greenfield Police Department, documents show.
On Dec. 4, 2020, Bustos was the lead officer in an investigation of two suspects committing identity theft at Paul's Wine & Liquor 2, 4955 S. 27th St.
The suspects were arrested and items such as bottles of illegally purchased alcohol, cartons of cigarettes and fraudulent credit cards were seized from the suspects' vehicle by Bustos.
The stolen merchandise was loaded into Bustos' squad car at the scene. He later unloaded and photographed the recovered items before sending out an email to the department ― but two bottles of alcohol recovered from the scene weren't included in his photograph.
A few days after this incident, concern rose among detectives after they could not locate the two bottles of alcohol recovered from the scene. They were valued at $120 each.
A detective conducted a follow-up with the officers who were at the scene and police body camera footage was reviewed.
Bustos and the other officers insisted all of the alcohol was inventoried.
Bustos was seen on body cameras and surveillance footage with evidence taken from the scene, but the liquor seen on body cameras was never inventoried into property.
After reviewing the footage, detectives concluded Bustos removed two bottles of alcohol, but he never inventoried them into evidence.
Bustos resigned from his position on Dec. 29, 2020, before the investigation was completed.
The finished investigation determined Bustos lied about mishandling evidence and could not explain why the bottles were missing. Documents show criminal charges of theft and misconduct were supported, however online court records show Bustos was never charged.
Contact Adrienne Davis at amdavis@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @AdriReportss.
This story was updated to correct a typo.
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