Prosecutors said Monday that a judge ordered a Baltimore County, Maryland, police officer, guilty of raping a woman and assaulting another, to home detention.
According to NBC affiliate WBAL, Baltimore County Circuit Judge Keith Truffer postponed all but four years of Anthony Westerman’s 15-year jail sentence and ordered him to serve it at home.
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger told NBC News that the punishment was “not appropriate” for an officer who “should know as well as or better than others the reprehensibility of such an act.”
“I’m disappointed in the outcome,” he said. “I do not believe when you’re convicted of second-degree rape that home detention is appropriate and I certainly don’t believe only four years on this kind of crime is appropriate.”
He added, “I fear this could cause rape victims to hesitate to report their crimes if they do not feel like they will get justice.”
According to court documents, Westerman was convicted in August after pleading not guilty to counts of second-degree rape, second-degree assault, and other crimes.
After two women accused him of rape, he was arrested in 2019. In one case from 2017, a woman claimed Westerman attempted to arrange an Uber ride home after she had consumed too much alcohol. She claimed she blacked out and awoke to find him rapping her at his home.
According to the Baltimore Sun, he was acquitted of the second rape but found guilty of forcibly kissing a third woman.
Prosecutors wanted Westerman to serve five to ten years in jail, but the court reduced his sentence after removing a count of second-degree rape and determining that the victim had not suffered psychological harm, according to Shellenberger.
Prosecutors appealed the decision in a statement to WBAL, claiming that at the time of the verdict the judge said that what happened to the victim “may be the most traumatic moment of her life.”
In an email, Westerman’s lawyer, Brian Thompson, said 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 also stated that he intends to appeal the conviction.
Westerman joined the Baltimore County Police Department in 2013. After being charged, he was suspended without pay, and WBAL reported on Monday that he had been terminated, citing the department.
According to Thompson, Westerman had only been suspended for the time being.
