OBETZ, Ohio -- An Obetz police officer accused of engaging in sexual activity with a woman he had just arrested has agreed to plead guilty to sexual battery next month.
Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Ron O'Brien said officer Vernon Wolford still faces up to five years in prison for the sexual battery charge - a third-degree felony.
Last month, Vernon arrested a woman wanted in Florida for probation violation. According to a search warrant, she told investigators that Vernon asked her "you want to go home," as she sat in the back of the police cruiser in handcuffs. The woman said she then performed the sex act and later reported the incident after arriving at the Franklin County Corrections Center.
A state crime lab later tested a substance on the woman's tennis shoe and determined it was Wolford's semen.
"Even while someone may claim that conduct was consensual the law pre-supposes that people cannot under that kind of circumstance give consent. And that's what would be the basis for the charge in this case," O'Brien said
Wolford's plea hearing in front of Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Julie Lynch is scheduled for January 25. O'Brien said Wolford has been placed on administrative leave by the Obetz Police Department.
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