Trial starts for officer accused of groping

Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va.

A woman testified that an Air Force officer who once led the branch’s sexual-assault response team groped her outside a Crystal City bar, then asked her if she liked it.

A misdemeanor assault trial began Tuesday for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, 42, of Arlington. He was arrested after the purported assault May 5 and initially charged with misdemeanor sexual battery, setting off a national furor about sexual abuse in the military and whether top brass take the issue seriously.

Arlington County prosecutors subsequently dropped the sexual-battery charge and substituted a generic assault-and-battery charge. Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos says the new charge was more appropriate given the standard of proof required for a sexual-battery conviction in Virginia.

But the core allegation remains the same. In court Tuesday, the 23-year-old woman told a seven-member jury that Krusinski grabbed and squeezed her buttocks outside a row of bars and restaurants, and then asked her, “Did you like it?”

The woman, who works for the Treasury Department, said she felt “just totally violated.” She testified that she followed him a few steps as he walked past, confronted him, and punched him in the face several times after he gestured in a manner that brought his hands close to her chest.