NORTHAMPTON — A Hampshire Superior Court jury on Friday found suspended state trooper Christopher Kennedy guilty of sexually assaulting a Worthington woman whom he met through a dating website in 2014.
Kennedy was convicted on charges of indecent exposure, assault and battery and indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years after the jury deliberated for about an hour. The trial began Thursday.
The decision appeared to stun several of Kennedy’s family members, who sobbed and embraced each other outside the courtroom immediately following the verdict. Kennedy’s defense lawyer, David P. Hoose, declined to comment.
Kennedy faces up to 2½ years in jail on the indecent exposure and assault and battery charges and up to five years in state prison on the indecent assault and battery charge. He may also have to register as a sex offender as part of his sentencing June 13 in Franklin Superior Court, according to the Northwestern district attorney’s office.
“We are very thankful for the jury’s attention to this matter and their swift verdict, which was only made possible by the strength of the victim who promptly reported this assault and testified at trial,” Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Suhl said in a statement Friday afternoon. “We hoped that other survivors of sexual violence can find strength from this verdict in knowing that perpetrators of these crimes can be held accountable in court.”
Kennedy, 32, of West Springfield, formerly worked in the Northampton State Police barracks until he was suspended without pay days after the incident.
The Massachusetts State Police, in a statement issued following the verdict, said, “Kennedy’s actions, as proven in a court of law (Friday), are deplorable, and are an insult to the ideals, values and expectations of the Massachusetts State Police and the integrity embraced by the overwhelming majority of state troopers.”
According to the statement, Kennedy’s employment status will now be reassessed “in light of his conviction. Typically, personnel convicted of serious charges face termination.”
Prosecutors said Kennedy sexually assaulted a 37-year-old woman and forced her to grope him on a July evening in 2014 at her Worthington home. The Daily Hampshire Gazette generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
Kennedy, who is married, was in his uniform and had driven to the woman’s house in his police cruiser after the two met for coffee at a nearby gas station for about 10 minutes, according to testimony and evidence presented at trial.
The victim testified Thursday that she felt comfortable enough inviting Kennedy to her house to finish their coffees, but was “shocked” and “scared” when he walked in the door and started unzipping his pants, according to her testimony.
She said that Kennedy, while exposing himself, grabbed her wrist and forcefully guided her hand to his penis, and began to kiss her over her objections, before zipping his pants back up and leaving the home before asking her, “Are you going to report me?”
Kennedy did not testify during the trial.
In his closing arguments Friday, Hoose told jurors that the woman was not “a babe in the woods” and that both she and Kennedy expected some kind of physical contact when the victim invited Kennedy to her house.
“This was purportedly to finish their coffee?” Hoose asked the jury. “Is it realistic to think that’s why she was inviting him to her home in Worthington?
“He was looking for a consensual encounter, a quick sexual encounter. This stopped as soon as she clearly expressed she didn’t want to go any further at this time.”
Hoose described the incident to the jury as “a misunderstanding, a bad date, a date that didn’t end well.”
“Mr. Kennedy is guilty of nothing more than bad judgment and inappropriate behavior,” he said. “That’s not a crime.”
Suhl told jurors in her closing remarks that there was no reason to believe that the victim would be making up any part of her story, in part, because she did not know Kennedy apart from their communications that began through the online dating site, Plenty of Fish, months earlier.
“There is no relationship between them,” Suhl said. “There’s no reason she would be biased. There’s no reason she would come in and make up additional facts.”
Suhl said the victim tried to increasingly distance herself from Kennedy through their text and phone communications during the time leading up to the sexual assault and noted that her language became less “flirty.”
“Somehow, some way, the defendant talks his way back to her house,” Suhl told jurors. “Allowing a person to come into your house is not consent to have sex. It’s pretty clear that there was no consent.”
Staff Writer Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.