A teen was sexually assaulted in Waynesboro last year: Why have no charges been brought?

A Waynesboro man contacted us last month to tell us that his teenage daughter had been the victim of a series of sexual assaults in 2021, that the Virginia State Police had investigated the case, recommended that charges be brought, and then, nothing happened.

The reason, he said: the Waynesboro Commonwealth’s attorney office has declined to this point to bring charges against the alleged perpetrator.

I know the name of the alleged perpetrator.

I have checked with the Waynesboro Police Department, which has no record of any warrants out for the man.

The State Police investigator in the case declined to comment, because the investigation is considered to be ongoing.

Waynesboro Commonwealth’s Attorney David Ledbetter also declined comment, even as to whether or not there is an active investigation into the case.

Because no charges have been brought, I’m not going to name the man who is the alleged perpetrator.

I’m also not, for obvious reasons, going to name the teen victim, or her father, because identifying him would, in turn, identify her.

So, in one sense, this is a story with a whole lot of nothing that I can actually tell you.

But it’s still one that needs to be told.

‘Not a priority’

The father of the victim told me that the alleged perpetrator was a “friend of the family,” someone that he has known for many years.

His daughter confided in him last summer that she had been sexually assaulted by the family friend on multiple occasions, in Waynesboro, Augusta County and Rockingham County.

The matter was reported to police, and because it had been alleged that the offenses had taken place in multiple jurisdictions, it ended up in the hands of the Virginia State Police.

The State Police investigator ultimately recommended to Waynesboro Police that charges be filed in the case, according to the father.

That recommendation was made in December, he said, but no charges have been filed, and the reason, according to the father, is that he has been told that the Commonwealth’s attorney office has been overwhelmed with its caseload, and that this particular case is “not a priority.”

This is where I will remind you that Ledbetter declined comment – politely, I will note – for the story.

I want to hope that the sense that the father of the victim has that this case is “not a priority” is something that somehow got lost in translation.

Sexual assault cases would have to be up near the top of a prosecutor’s list of top priorities, right?

It would make more sense that the issue here is that Commonwealth attorney’s office is just overwhelmed with cases.

We’ve reported in recent weeks about similar situations with overburdened Commonwealth’s attorney offices in Fairfax County and Petersburg in which the state has been asked to help with additional resources.

The father of the victim himself reached out to the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares to see if the state can do anything to help in his daughter’s case.

The answer back, basically, was no, it’s up to the local Commonwealth’s attorney.

The fallout

The father said his teen, who is in therapy for PTSD following the assaults, lives in daily fear of running into the family friend – while out shopping, going out to eat, really anywhere.

Waynesboro is a small town; it’s hard not to run into people you know.

Whatever ends up happening with the criminal part of this matter, there’s a victim here who will live with this the rest of her life.

At the least, she deserves some consideration here.

As do any possible future victims, if the perpetrator in this case is allowed to skate, and were to then reoffend.

The hope here is that this case will eventually see the light of day.

And while we’re at it, we might also need to ask state leaders for more help for our overwhelmed local Commonwealth’s attorneys.

That point can’t be stressed enough.

I don’t want this story to come across as some sort of journalistic indictment of our local prosecutor’s office.

The folks there are doing everything they can with the limited resources they have.

The bigger issue is, for all the political talk about whichever party is tougher on crime, we have these issues with having enough cops and prosecutors on the job to actually be tough on crime.