Detective drops defamation suit against lawyer over her comments about teen sexting investigation
Image from Shutterstock.
A defamation suit by a Virginia police officer over comments made by a lawyer defending a teen in a sexting case has been withdrawn.
However, it isn’t clear whether the Prince William Circuit Court suit against Jessica Harbeson Foster might possibly be refiled, reports the Washington Post (reg. req.)
Foster gave an interview in July 2014 to the Washington Post, criticizing Detective David Abbott of the Manassas City Police Department for allegedly seeking a warrant to get a photo of her 17-year-old client’s erect penis. The teen had been accused of sending explicit texts to his 15-year-old girlfriend and was facing felony charges for possessing and manufacturing child pornography. Abbott was the lead investigator on the case. The newspaper quoted Foster as saying, “Who does this? It’s just crazy.”
The plan, which was to compare photos of the teen’s erect genitalia to images from the sexts at issue, was not executed, although police did take a set of photos of the teen naked. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Richardson II did obtain a second search warrant for a photo of the teen’s erect penis, but after Foster’s Washington Post interview garnered media attention, the Manassas police declined to serve the warrant. A lawyer for Foster argued that her statements were at least substantially true and included “constitutionally protected opinion as well as rhetorical hyperbole not actionable as defamation.” Foster’s lawyers also introduced as evidence an email from Abbott to Foster saying that he’d been told that for evidentiary purposes “I would need pictures of [the teen] erect.”
A lawyer for Abbott said he had acted at the direction of a prosecutor and argued that Foster’s alleged mischaracterization of the officer’s conduct was a falsehood that damaged Abbott’s reputation in law enforcement. Abbott said he had planned to send the pictures to the Department of Homeland Security for analysis, rather than conducting the analysis himself.
Foster had tried once before to have the suit dismissed, but retired Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne had not allowed it. On Oct. 29, Abbott filed his own motion to dismiss the case, and Horne approved the motion on Monday.
Foster’s teen client was tried in August 2014 and placed on probation, with the charges to be dismissed after one year of good behavior.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Police refuse to execute warrant for photos of youth’s erection in sexting case”
ABAJournal.com: “Cop sues lawyer for alleged defamation over comments about penis search warrant”
