A sergeant in the Fairfax County Police Department was arrested over the weekend for alleged sexual abuse.
Matthew Sylvester, a 40-year-old resident of Warrenton, has been charged with two counts of aggravated sexual battery by the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office after he was taken into custody on Saturday (April 18) around 1 a.m., according to the FCPD.
“Both victims are known to him,” the FCPD said in a press release yesterday (Sunday).
The Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the arrest with a booking photo but declined to comment further.
“We are not providing additional information at this time about our ongoing criminal investigation,” Jeffery Long, a public information officer for the sheriff’s office, said.
The FCPD says it has employed Sylvester for 16 years, and he was most recently assigned to its internal affairs bureau. He has now been placed on leave “pending the outcome of a criminal and administrative investigation.”
As of yesterday afternoon, Sylvester’s case hasn’t appeared yet in Fauquier County’s online court records.
Virginia law defines aggravated sexual battery as sexual abuse involving a victim who’s under 13 years old, physically or mentally incapacitated, or between 13 and 18 years old and victimized by a parent or grandparent. It can also be applied in cases where a sexual act is committed without consent against a victim who is 13 to 15 years old, experienced serious bodily or mental injury, or was threatened with a weapon.
The charge is a felony that can be punished by one to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
