VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – Former Virginia Beach Police officer Sean Fearon has been found not guilty of abduction and sexual assault following a three-day trial focused on a June 2024 incident.

Fearon’s family members embraced each other, and Fearon embraced his defense attorney Kristin Paulding, when the not guilty verdicts were announced after just one hour of jury deliberation.

“I was very happy and I was very relieved, because I know my brother to be an upstanding citizen,” his sister Shanae Earlington said outside the courthouse.

“The fact that the verdict came back so quickly tells me exactly what the evidence showed from the beginning – that the case was grossly overcharged,” Paulding said.

Fearon was acquitted of one count each of abduction with intent to defile and object sexual penetration.

Sean Fearon, 23, was on the force for about a year when he came to a two-vehicle accident while on-duty in June 2024.

Both Fearon and the accuser who was 19 at the time took the stand during the trial.

Fearon said she initiated the sexual contact by grabbing his crotch while he was in his police vehicle completing the accident report. She told investigators the day afterward that she touched him sexually.

But this week during her testimony, her version changed, when she said Fearon guided her hand toward his crotch.

“She testified to something different that apparently she had not told the police or the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, and that’s just not when new evidence should be coming out at the day of trial,” Paulding said, calling the case a series of bad decisions by two young people.

Fearon resigned from the Virginia Beach Police Department after he was charged last summer.

“Sean made a ton of bad decisions,” Paulding said. “And he’s not a police officer anymore and that’s the right decision. But she made bad decisions too, I think they’ll both learn from this experience, but there were no criminal behaviors.”

His sister says Fearon has expressed regret for what he did that evening.

The incident began on Independence Blvd right by the third police precinct near Old Donation School.

The woman had rear ended a pick-up truck leading to minor damage to both vehicles.

Fearon responded to the incident and helped her move her vehicle to a nearby bank parking lot, and later to a Jiffy Lube about half a mile away, court documents stated. Surveillance video from the Jiffy Lube area showed the woman talking to Fearon for several minutes through his driver side window.

Eventually, Fearon drove the woman back to her house, but his body cam video shows her saying to him, “give me a hug” as he drops her off.

Monday

Fearon’s Defense Attorney, Kristin Paulding, said in an opening statement it was a 19-year-old woman who initiated the sexual contact — by reaching and stroking the officers genital area over his uniform.

The woman’s boyfriend testified that she called him shortly after the incident, saying she had been sexually assaulted by a police officer. The boyfriend testified that made him very angry and he ended up calling police. While in court, the boyfriend shot stares at Fearon and was closely followed by a court bailiff as he walked past the defense table.

Visiting prosecutor David Vitto said the case is about power and opportunity — that Sean Fearon took advantage of his uniform and took advantage of a drunk 19-year-old.

Vitto said Fearon typed out a message on his phone and showed it to the woman, asking if she was good at performing a sex act.

Vitto then said Fearon’s body camera was off for 29 minutes — then on for less than a minute — and then off for nearly an hour during their encounter. 

Tuesday

The accuser testified on Tuesday for nearly four hours. The woman, 19 at the time, was involved in a traffic accident on independence Boulevard in the Haygood section. The accused, Sean Fearon, 23, responded to the accident.

The woman testified she was shocked, confused and drunk at the time of the incident.

While in court, she said Sean Fearon initiated the sexual contact, but his attorney attacked her credibility.

The woman had rear ended a pick up truck on independence Boulevard June 14.  She said she had had four or five drinks while spending a day at a local waterpark. Her Mazda SUV was leaking fluids after the crash. She and Fearon moved their vehicles to a nearby bank parking lot and eventually to a Jiffy Lube about half a mile away. 

The woman said while they were together at the bank, Fearon sexually assaulted her.

Two fellow officers and an assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney testified that Fearon told them the woman was the one who grabbed his crotch, and Fearon claimed that she was trying to extort him for the cost of repairs for her car.

Defense Attorney Kristin Paulding asked her why she didn’t go to the nearby police precinct less than a block away. Paulding also said her version of the events was a new story that she never told to anyone in authority until Tuesday’s testimony.

Paulding showed her a transcript of her statement the day after the initial incident, in which she admitted to touching Fearon sexually.

Fearon and the woman exchanged text messages about 12 hours after the incident.

“Girl, you grabbed my privates,” Fearon wrote to her.

She responded, “what you did is not right.”

Eventually, Fearon rode her home.

As she got out of his police vehicle, she approached him and said I want to hug. She told an investigator she did that because she felt she needed to thank him.

Fearon is expected to testify when the case resumes Wednesday afternoon — and the jury should get it by Thursday.

Wednesday

Sean Fearon took the stand Wednesday afternoon and denied the charges. He described an earlier encounter with the 19-year-old woman shortly before the two-car accident on Independence Blvd.

Fearon said he noticed she had been driving erratically and was on her phone. He said he gave her a simple warning through her open car window. When he saw her involved in the accident, he said she initially denied being the same person, but then later admitted to it. He began a field sobriety test, and during her testimony Tuesday, she admitted to having “four or five drinks” while spending the day at Water Country USA. Fearon did not charge her with DUI.

Body cam video showed the woman at the accident scene walking to the police car while Fearon was in the driver’s seat completing the accident report. He testified that he was resting his left arm on the open window, and the woman began stroking it. The driver’s door was slightly ajar, and according to Fearon, she then reached in and touched his crotch over his uniform. His body cam was operating, but that part of his body was below the field of view.

Fearon said the two used the Notes app on his personal phone to type out sexual, flirting messages to each other.

On body cam video, the woman refers to Fearon several times as “baby.”

Once Fearon followed her damaged car to a Truist parking lot nearby, he says he began touching her leg and then her genitals, but she did not say “no” or resist his advances.

The Commonwealth will cross-examine Fearon Thursday morning and then the jury is expected to get the case.

If convicted on the charges of abduction and sexual assault, Fearon could face from five years to life in prison.