An Atlanta police officer indicted twice on charges he sexually assaulted a woman was acquitted Thursday, more than seven years after the alleged incident occurred.
Wayne Longe, also a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the back of his patrol car while on duty in July 2004. According to prosecutors, the woman, in her 40s, was arrested for drinking in public then taken to Anderson Park in northwest Atlanta where she was assaulted with the car door open.
Longe's attorney, Jackie Patterson, argued the woman was never under arrest and that the sex between the two was consensual.
Evidence also surfaced in this week's trial in Fulton County Superior Court that Longe had paid the woman $1,100 in 2008 as a settlement.
"The jury concluded that a victim of a sexual assault would never take a check of $1,100 from their alleged assailant," Patterson said.
Longe was suspended with pay by the Atlanta Police Department in 2004 after the allegation. He was no longer paid by the department following the 2008 indictment.
Patterson said he will sue for back pay on behalf of Longe.
In Sept. 2008 the indictment against Longe was thrown out because the paperwork didn't specify what kind of sex allegedly took place. He was re-indicted on the same charges later that week.
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