Former Police Officer Convicted of Forcibly Sodomizing Ex-Girlfriend

A former Fairfax County police officer was convicted in Prince William County Circuit Court on Thursday of forcibly sodomizing his ex-girlfriend in 2009 in the Manassas area. 

James Craig Summers, 56, a Burke resident who served with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department for 30 years before he became a police officer, was found guilty on the third day of a jury trial. Summers was arrested in May 2012.

The victim told the court that in one incident while she was dating Summers, he grabbed her arm, twisted it around her back, handcuffed her and then forcibly sodomized her—despite her pleas for him to stop. 

After deliberating for several hours Wednesday afternoon and part of Thursday morning, the five men and seven women recommended that Summers serve a seven-year sentence. A judge will make the final decision when Summers is sentenced on Aug. 2. 

In a case lacking any physical evidence, the verdict largely depended on the testimony of the victim. Prosecutor Kristina Robinson urged the jury to consider who was the more credible witness, then characterized Summers as "a manipulative personality" who had multiple affairs both before and after the relationship ended.

"He hasn't changed. James Summers is who James Summers is. He's a liar. He's a cheat. And you can't believe a word he says," Robinson said. 

Summers admitted the affairs, but denied hurting the victim. In closing arguments, the defense tried to paint a portrait of the ex-girlfriend as a jilted lover, who was bent on getting back at Summers for the shabby way he treated her. 

"I would never do something like that—violence on another human being," Summers said. 

The victim said she had not reported the information for two and a half years largely out of fear that Summers would retaliate.