A D.C. police officer was arrested Monday in connection to the sexual abuse of an underage girl that started 15 years ago.
D.C. police said 49-year-old Lucius Kearney, of Waldorf, Maryland, is accused of sexually abusing the girl several times beginning in 2006.
According to court documents, Kearney and the girl met while she was in 10th grade, when he was 34 and she was 15. During that time, she, Kearney and a witness conducted an interview together as part of a school report for a class the girl was taking called “D.C. History and Government.” At the end of that interview, Kearney and the girl exchanged numbers.
Kearney then began texting her a short while later, and those texts turned to sexual topics quickly. She said they discussed the age of consent, and that Kearney was aware she was in 10th grade.
The court documents go on to say she had at least three sexual encounters with Kearney, and that at least one of them took place in the residence she lived in at the time. She said after this encounter, she began to feel disgusting and “like trash.” She said that while she was not physically forced into having sex with Kearney, she still felt as though she had to do what he told her.
She told an ex-boyfriend at the time that she wanted to end the relationship. In March 2020, the ex-boyfriend confirmed that while he had not spoken with her in a number of years, he remembered that she told him that she had had a sexual relationship with a cop who was in his late 20s or early-to-mid 30s.
In 2020, when the victim was 29 years old, she told a therapist about the sexual relationship she had had with a D.C. police officer. The therapist then reported that sexual abuse allegation.
Kearney and the woman had an encounter on April 30, 2019, a few months before she entered therapy. According to her, she saw Kearney outside of the building where she now lives, and told Kearney, “I know you,” before going inside.
Internal affairs found footage of that encounter. In the video, the victim tells Kearney “I know you,” and he responds “Oh yeah, from where?” The woman then goes inside, and Kearney gets back into his car. He can be heard saying, “Oh god,” under his breath, according to the court documents.
Kearney then ran a check on his on-board computer for a license plate that was confirmed to belong to the victim. Kearney can then be heard to say, “How in the world did I ******* manage to do that?”
The woman identified Kearney in a photo lineup, saying she recognized his eyes and his beard.
An warrant was then obtained and Kearney was arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree child sex abuse.
Kearney has worked for the department since 2001, and is assigned to the Fourth District. He had been stripped of his police powers and was assigned to a role that did not involve interacting with the public, the department said.
