Former Bedford County deputy convicted of stalking

A former Bedford and Campbell County sheriff’s deputy heralded as a hero a decade ago was convicted Thursday of stalking.

Rodney L. Thompson, 35, of Forest, was convicted at the conclusion of more than four hours of testimony and argument in Lynchburg General District court. Thompson was sentenced to four months in jail, although he is likely to be released in the next two weeks based on time served and credit for good behavior.

Thompson is accused of stalking a woman between February and April with whom he’d had a seven-year relationship.

The woman testified Thompson would follow her around Lynchburg in his truck, berate her in telephone conversations and in text messages, harass her at work and once threatened to kill her.

On March 18, she said, the former deputy turned up at her bank in Forest. After she left the bank, she testified, he pulled up next to her in his truck in a nearby parking lot.

“He said, ‘Let me tell you this, you cost me one job. If you cost me this one, I will kill you,’” the woman testified.

Thompson’s employment with the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office ended in late summer or early fall last year, Maj. Ricky Gardner stated in April. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jennifer Bennett, who prosecuted the case, said Thompson did not leave voluntarily.

The former deputy was nearly stabbed to death in July 1998 on Timberlake Road after chasing down a man with a gun and knocking it out of his hand, the man stabbed him in the shoulder and chest with a knife.

Thompson was awarded medals from local, state and national law enforcement organizations. According to a Central Virginia Community College speaker’s biography, he was a runner-up for the National Deputy of the Year in 1999.

As recently as last year, he received an award from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia for his work in computer crimes for Bedford County. According to the same speaker’s bio, Thompson moved from Campbell County to Bedford County’s sheriff’s office in 2003.

After being arrested in early April, investigators discovered evidence Thompson had been staking out his victim’s workplace.

Eugene Wingfield, an investigator with the city commonwealth’s attorney’s office, testified he found a notepad in Thompson’s truck that had a log detailing people coming and going from the woman’s workplace.

Wingfield said Thompson admitted in an interview to using binoculars to observe her, that he was trying to “catch her in a lie,” and that his surveillance was justified because “she’s telling me she loves me and she wants to be with me.”

General District Court Judge Patrick Yeatts said there was more going on than just Thompson’s behavior. Some of the evidence of Thompson’s victim’s behavior this year leading up to his arrest was “bizarre,” Yeatts said in his ruling.

The woman testified she took explicit photos of herself in January and sent them to Thompson. On April 4, three days before he was arrested, Thompson testified, he met the woman in a local car dealership parking lot where she showed him photos of herself in her underwear.

The woman testified she sent him the pictures when he would get angry with her and “torment” her as a way to pacify him because she was scared of what he would do if he got any madder.

During his testimony, Thompson denied ever threatening her. Instead, he said, he was frustrated because he believed she was keeping their relationship secret because a close relative of the woman did not like him.

He said he never meant her any harm, but apologized for yelling at her and calling her names during verbal arguments and over text messages.

When asked by Bennett if he had an anger problem, he said, “Only when it comes to her.”

Joseph Sanzone, Thompson’s lawyer, argued that while the two needed to stay away from each other, a criminal conviction wasn’t the way to solve the problem. Sanzone also argued that it was impossible to believe the woman feared for her life when she was sending nude photos of herself and was continuing to communicate with Thompson.

Bennett, though, pointed to an e-mail Thompson sent the woman the day he was arrested that catalogued in detail his recent advances toward her and that, according to the e-mail, she had zero response. Thompson, she said, should have understood that his behavior was “creepy,” unwanted, and that he was not, as he claimed, her boyfriend.

Yeatts ruled that though the woman’s behavior was unusual, Thompson should have known his own actions were threatening.

“I don’t know how he could have thought otherwise,” the judge said.

Thompson was sentenced to 12 months in jail with eight months suspended. He may not get within 500 feet of the woman and cannot have any contact with her or her immediate family.

Sanzone said he plans to appeal the decision based on his belief that Virginia’s stalking law is unconstitutional. He said he will also file a motion to dismiss a similar stalking charge in Campbell County because it would be double jeopardy.