A teenager testified that she was afraid of dying the night an on-duty Portsmouth police officer raped her, according to court records.
“I couldn’t even tell if I was even going to come out of the situation alive,” the teenager told a judge in February. “Seriously. I was just thinking in my head the whole time that this is like the movies. Like, this is how the girls die.”
The teenager testified during a preliminary hearing for former
Portsmouth Police Department Officer Cleshaun Cox, who is accused of raping and abducting her on May 27, 2019. She was 17 years old at the time of the alleged rape. The preliminary hearing in Portsmouth Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court was closed to the public, including journalists.
The teenager told Cox that she did not want to have sex with him and that she was uncomfortable. Court records state that Cox told her to get into his police car. She said she screamed and had an anxiety attack, but ultimately obeyed him. He drove her to another location, near a warehouse, where she said he raped her, according to court records.
“I was just feeling like these were my final moments,” she testified.
Cox allegedly drove the teenager back to her car and told her, “if anybody asks, nothing happened,” according to court records. She testified that she drove back home and reported the rape to a family member.
“He was trying to make it seem as if, if I didn’t do this, I was going to still be in trouble, and if I even told anybody, I was going to be in trouble,” she testified.
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