Chesapeake man cleared in sex act posted to Facebook

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Scott Daugherty - The Virginian-Pilot




CHESAPEAKE - The video posted on Facebook showed a woman being sexually assaulted by her now-ex-boyfriend, according to prosecutors.

Or did it?

A Circuit Court judge last week acquitted 25-year-old Seth-Michael Chase of all charges relating to the alleged assault. He questioned whether the woman initially consented to the sex act in question and then changed her mind when she found the video posted on the Internet.

"I'm finding the defendant not guilty, as frustrating as it is to do so," Judge E. Preston Grissom said Friday after noting several vagaries in her courtroom testimony. He described the act captured in the video as "vile" and the individuals who perpetrated it as "deranged" but said reasonable doubt still existed.

Chase, who spent most of the past six months in jail, was released Friday.

The cameraman behind the video - Christopher Farrell, 25, of Chesapeake - pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of object sexual penetration. He remains in the Chesapeake Correctional Center pending a Sept. 15 sentencing hearing.

It is unclear when the incident occurred inside Chase's home in the 800 block of Curtis Ave. Some court records list the date as Feb. 7, but the woman testified Friday she wasn't sure. She said it was probably between Jan. 19 and Feb. 19, when the video was posted on Facebook following an argument between her and Farrell.

The video shows Chase using a small brush on the woman while she appeared to sleep, according to prosecutors and court documents. It captured the back of Chase's head and the laughter of both men.

The woman testified Friday she did not know she was sexually assaulted until she saw the video. She said she never gave Chase permission to do what he did.

"If it hadn't gone out there on social media, she probably would have never known about it and you guys could have just giggled like little school girls about it for as long as you wanted to," Detective L.G. Johnson told Chase and Farrell during a March 11 interview, according to a transcript. "But you had to put it out there to further try to humiliate her."

The woman said that she thought she knew when the video was recorded and that she had been drinking that night. She said she does not drink often and went to bed before Chase and Farrell called it quits.

The woman was adamant, however, that she did not pass out.

Chase testified in his own defense. He did not say his girlfriend consented to the assault, though. He argued that the video didn't show penetration, that it was all a gag Farrell came up with while the woman was asleep.

"It was completely a joke," said Chase. "There is a difference between pretending to do something and actually doing something."

[deebakes]

if she didn't want it, her pussy would have locked up