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A Baltimore County, Maryland, police officer convicted of raping a
woman and assaulting another was sentenced to home detention after a
judge found that there was no “psychological injury” in one of the
cases, prosecutors said Monday.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Keith Truffer suspended all but four
years of a 15-year prison term and ordered the officer, Anthony
Westerman, to serve it at home, NBC affiliate WBAL reported.

In a statement to NBC News, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said the sentence was “not appropriate” for a police
officer, who “should know as well or better than others the
reprehensibility of such an act.”

“I fear this could cause rape victims to hesitate to report their
crimes if they do not feel like they will get justice,” he said.

Westerman, who had pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree
rape, second-degree assault and other crimes, was convicted in
August, court records show.

He was arrested in 2019 after two women accused him of rape. In one
case from 2017, a woman said that after she drank too much,
Westerman offered to arrange an Uber ride home. She told authorities
that she passed out and awoke to him raping her at his house.

He was acquitted in the second rape, the Baltimore Sun reported, and
convicted of forcibly kissing a third woman.

Prosecutors had asked that Westerman serve five to 10 years in
prison, but he received a lighter sentence after the judge removed a
count of second-degree rape and found that the victim had not
suffered psychological injury, Shellenberger said.

In a statement to WBAL, prosecutors challenged the finding, arguing
that the judge himself had described what happened to the woman as
"maybe the most traumatic moment of her life" and pointing out that
she had been to therapy.

A lawyer for Westerman, Brian Thompson, said by email that his
client was "relieved" that the judge had ordered home confinement.

"We believe that the verdict was against the weight of the
evidence," he said. "This was a 'he said, she said' case in which
everyone was intoxicated."

Thompson added that he planned to appeal the conviction.

Westerman, who joined the department in 2013 and was placed on
unpaid suspension after being charged, was fired after his
sentencing, a department spokeswoman said.

In a statement, police chief Melissa Hyatt pointed to the
department's own investigation of Westerman as an “example of our
commitment to holding individuals responsible for their actions.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maryland-police-officer- convicted-rape-sentenced-home-detention-rcna6416

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