PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – An ex-police officer is facing a federal charge connected to the abduction and sexual assault of a teenage girl in Portsmouth.
Cleshaun Cox was charged with abducting and raping a 17-year-old girl while he was on duty with the Portsmouth Police Department in May 2019. He pleaded guilty to abduction and a lesser charge of carnal knowledge in August 2021 and was sentenced to five years in prison.
10 On Your Side’s investigative team has learned Cox is charged again – this time in federal court with depriving the teenage girl of her rights. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. Cox is scheduled to appear in federal court for a plea hearing on July 12.
The teenager was listening to music with a group of friends in the Westwinds Apartments when Cox and another patrol officer responded to a noise complaint in May 2019. The officers let several boys who were in the group leave the parking lot, but told the teen girl she was out past curfew, gave her a verbal warning, and told her and a young adult passenger to drive home immediately, according to court records.
The teenager said Cox followed her and her friend to a gas station and to her home. Cox was upset that the teen brought her friend back to her house, and ordered her to drive her friend back to their home. He followed her, then ordered the teen to follow him to a parking lot, court records state.
In the parking lot, Cox told her to get out of her car and leave her personal items, including her cellphone, inside of it. He threatened to ticket the girl for being out past curfew and for other issues with her car, then drove her to another location and sexually assaulted her.
“I was just feeling like these were my final moments,” the teen told a judge during a hearing that happened in February 2020.
“I couldn’t even tell if I was even going to come out of the situation alive,” the teenager said. “Seriously. I was just thinking in my head the whole time that this is like the movies. Like, this is how the girls die.”
