Prosecutors in Virginia have declined to charge the lieutenant colonel who headed the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention branch with sexual battery, after a May 5 incident where he allegedly groped a woman’s breasts and buttocks.
Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski will now face charges of assault and battery, a misdemeanor, Kristin Davis with Military Times reports.
Prosecutor Theo Stamos told Military Times that a more thorough understanding of the events, particularly the level of force used, supported the lesser charge. She will present the case before a grand jury Aug. 19.
An intoxicated Krusinski allegedly approached and grabbed the woman who he did not know in a parking lot in Arlington late at night. She fought him off and alerted police.
He was dismissed from his post as chief of the Air Force’s prevention branch in the Pentagon.
The post is now headed by a two-star general.
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