Former Virginia State Police captain pleads guilty to aggravated sexual battery www.privateofficer.com

 

LAWRENCEVILLE, Va. Nov 30 2011 Former Virginia State Police captain Edward L. Hope Jr., facing sexual-abuse charges involving a juvenile girl eight years ago, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was given a suspended sentence in Brunswick County Circuit Court this morning.

Hope, 55, pleaded guilty to a single count of aggravated sexual battery. Circuit Court Judge Alan Sharrett sentenced him to 20 years in prison, with all of it suspended. He will have to register with the state’s sexual offender registry. Several of the victim’s family members wept when Hope admitted his guilt.

Hope declined an opportunity to comment during the sentencing and never looked at the victim, a Chesterfield County girl now 15 years old, sitting in the second row of the courtroom. He left through a back door of the courthouse.

Hope had been charged with two counts of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of rape and one count of forcible sodomy, and faced multiple life terms.

A trial in May was postponed when the victim said she could not remember the incidents.

Hope went on trial in 2010 in Chesterfield County on multiple charges of rape, sexual penetration and forcible sodomy. A mistrial was declared because of juror misconduct, and Chesterfield authorities said then that they do not intend to re-try the case because of the difficulty doing so would place on the girl.

Hope was simultaneously indicted in Brunswick because of alleged acts that took place there in a hunting cabin between November and December 2003.

Source:Richmond Times Daily