PORTSMOUTH, Va.
A Portsmouth police officer is off the job and under arrest. 37 year old Paul Ewing is accused of sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl. Tuesday, he faced a judge.
Portsmouth Police information officer Ann Hope tells MyFoxHamptonRoads.com Officer Paul Ewing and the alleged victim are acquaintances. Ewing was arrested Monday night even though his accuser says she was raped in January of 2007.
More than a year and a half after the alleged rape occurred in January '07, Portsmouth police say the teen and her mother contacted them. On September 28th, the report was filed and the accuser passed a polygraph test according to the police report. September 29th, investigators arrested Officer Paul Ewing at the Portsmouth Police Department on rape charges. Tuesday, he was in court.
"He was placed on administrative leave and we can't really discuss that because it's a personnel issue," says Hope.
Hope says Ewing, now 37, was with the department for almost four years.
"He was a uniformed patrol officer who worked the midnight shift," says Hope.
It was right around noon New Years Day the alleged victim told investigators the rape happened. The report states after she got home, Ewing "followed the victim to her bedroom. The defendant began to remove the victim's pants."
It goes on to say, "The victim told the defendant to stop and was not comfortable with the situation..."
The report also states, "The victim took a polygraph exam in which she passed with no indications of deception."
As Ewing's family left the Portsmouth Courthouse Tuesday, they were too emotional to speak. No one in his neighborhood was willing to speak on camera, saying they didn't know him well enough. No one responded to our knocks at Ewing's home.
"It's sad. It's unfortunate and all we can do at this point in just wait for the court system to run it's process," says Hope.
Ewing's bond was set at 20-thousand dollars. A Commonwealth Attorney Spokesman tells me they requested another attorney be brought in to work this case because of conflict of interest. Ewing's preliminary hearing is set for November.
MyFoxHamptonRoads.com
http://www.myfoxhamptonroads.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7547466&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
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