THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 30, 1996 TAG: 9608300516
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 32 lines
A former police officer has been acquitted of a charge that he fondled an 18-year-old woman whose car he alleged had run a stop sign and was weaving across a road in May.
On Wednesday, a seven-member jury acquitted Larry L. Walker, who was still in his one-year probationary period at the time of the incident. He was dismissed from the force that week for violating departmental procedure.
``The dismissal of the charge against Mr. Walker will have no effect on how the issue was handled here at the Police Department,'' police spokesman Mike Carey said Thursday. ``He remains terminated.''
The incident was alleged to have occurred behind First Colonial High School in the early morning hours of May 19.
At issue was what happened after Walker, then 28, pulled over the young woman. She contended that she remained stopped for more than an hour while Walker searched her car several times.
The woman, now 19, alleged in her statement that Walker directed her to drive to the high school and led her to believe he wanted her to do something to get herself out of the trouble she was in.
Walker testified that the two never went to the high school. He suggested that the young woman made her report because, before letting her go, he had told her he would inform her father that she had been driving his car while alone late at night with beer and cigarette rolling papers in the car.
The jury Wednesday deliberated only about 15 minutes, according to Walker's attorney, Larry Slipow. by CNB