A man who was employed as a George Mason University police officer has been convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He is Eric Crushshon, 37, of 1204 Kings Crest Drive in Stafford County.
Fairfax County police said the victim was a 17-year-old Clifton boy, and the incident occurred March 31, around 4:30 p.m., in a bathroom in Fair Oaks Mall.
INITIALLY, police alleged that Crushshon approached the teen in the bathroom and sexually assaulted him. So they also charged him with sexual battery. On April 15, Henrico County police arrested him on Fairfax County warrants.
However, when he appeared last Friday, July 1, in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, the sexual battery charge was dropped. Crushshon pleaded guilty to the other charge and, after Judge Teena Grodner ascertained from him that he was entering his plea freely and voluntarily — and because he was, indeed, guilty of this crime — she accepted his plea.
Grodner then sentenced him to 360 days in jail, suspending all but 20 days. She also placed him on a year's probation and ordered him to have no further contact with the victim. In addition, the judge barred him from the property of Fair Oaks Mall for one year.
According to the April 25 issue of Broadside, GMU's student newspaper, Crushshon previously worked 11 years for the Henrico County Police Department. There, he received an Employee Service Award before joining that county's sheriff's office in October 2003.
He was employed by GMU's police department since January 2004 but, said Maj. George Ganowski, GMU assistant chief of police, "He resigned his position with our police department around the time this problem originally surfaced and he was arrested."