NORTHAMPTON — A judge ruled Tuesday that a suspended state trooper convicted of sexually assaulting a woman he met online must register as a sex offender.
Christopher Kennedy, 33, of West Springfield, was convicted May 27 in Hampshire Superior Court of indecent exposure, assault and battery and indecent assault and battery.
Prosecutors said in court that Kennedy, who was on duty and in uniform, exposed himself to the woman and forced her to grope him at her Worthington home in July 2014.
Kennedy’s attorney, David Hoose, of Northampton, filed a motion earlier this month asking Judge Daniel A. Ford to relieve Kennedy of having to register as a sex offender. Ford denied that motion Tuesday.
“I believe that the circumstances of the offense, including the brazenness of the sexual assault … together with the defendant’s history of substance abuse, render him, at the very least, a low risk to reoffend. That is sufficient to require registration as a sex offender,” Ford wrote in response to the motion.
On June 13, Ford sentenced Kennedy to six months in the Hampshire County House of Correction on the exposure charge, and one year on the assault and battery charge — with six months to be served concurrently with the first charge, and the rest suspended for two years of probation. Ford also ordered two years of probation on the indecent assault and battery charge.
Kennedy’s jail sentence will begin Aug. 15 unless a new trial is ordered.
Hoose has about six weeks remaining to convince a Supreme Judicial Court judge to order a new trial on the basis that Ford made a mistake in not instructing the jury to weigh whether Kennedy believed he had consent to engage in sexual activity with the victim.
Before his case went to trial, Kennedy turned down a plea arrangement that would have resulted in him being placed on probation for one year and forego sex-offender registration.
Kennedy remains suspended without pay, according to the Massachusetts State Police.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com or 413-585-5234.