A 21-year-old Hampton woman accused of having repeated consensual sexual contact with a 15-year-old York County girl was released on $1,000 bond only to violate that bond by contacting a friend of the victim before that day was out, prosecutors say.
Stephanie Marie Griffith appeared in York-Poquoson Circuit Court on Tuesday in a bid to appeal a decision by the York County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to keep her in custody following the alleged contact. Circuit court judge Richard Y. AtLee Jr. sided with York-Poquoson Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Valerie Bowen to sustain the revocation of the bond after testimony revealed the friend whom Griffith allegedly contacted knew the exact amount of Griffith’s bond.
That knowledge, AtLee said, lent credibility to the story.
Griffith was arrested by deputies from the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 16 after she was found with the 15-year-old girl in a wooded area near the 900 block of Point Comfort Loop near Hampton. That road is part of Jamestown Village, which is a neighborhood in Langley Family Housing’s off-base housing. The housing in that area is restricted to military members and their families. The neighborhood is located immediately off Big Bethel Road, adjacent to Bethel Manor.
A person called and reported hearing a person in distress in that area. When deputies arrived, they found two people who identified themselves as a boy and a girl, both 15 years old.
The 15-year-old boy gave the name Seth Walker to police. That person turned out to be the 21-year-old Griffith, according to investigators. A police report from the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office said Griffith and the 15-year-old girl had consensual sexual contact on several occasions. Investigators determined the girl knew Griffith’s gender, however she was unaware of her age.
Griffith was subsequently charged with seven counts of misdemeanor sexual battery, one felony count of crimes against nature and one count of misdemeanor piercing a minor. The distress noises turned out to have been made by the 15-year-old girl who had consented to have Griffith pierce her belly button, said Lt. Dennis Ivey, a YPSO spokesperson.
“A good observant citizen heard those sounds, thought it sounded suspicious, and that’s what broke the case. We’re very appreciative of the alert citizens who help us out,” Ivey said at the time of Griffith’s arrest.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Griffith’s employer, Newport News-based contractor Keith Hoban, said Griffith reported to work the day she was released from jail on bond. He said he was around her until about 6:15 p.m., when her mother picked her up from work. Hoban said his employees aren’t allowed to use their phones while at work and both he and a supervisor ensure employees comply with that rule. He said he didn’t see Griffith use her phone during her entire shift.
Kristin Schomburg, an investigator for the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office, said Griffith first called the friend of the victim at 4:57 p.m. A second call was received by the friend of the victim at 6:09 p.m. It was during that conversation that Griffith asked for the friend to tell the victim to contact her. Griffith also told the friend her bond was $1,000, Schomburg said.
Bowen said that is a violation of the bond, which stipulated Griffith was to have no direct or indirect contact with the victim. She presented a written statement to AtLee from the friend of the victim which included the bond amount.
Griffith testified her phone was damaged that day, saying that while she could receive calls, she was unable to operate many of the phone’s buttons. Her lawyer, Romeo Lumaban, argued “there was clearly no direct contact” between Griffith and the victim and that “we deny that she made any contact’ to the friend of the victim.”
Lumaban then said if Griffith were to hypothetically contact the friend of the victim, it wouldn’t count as indirect contact unless the friend told the victim, which there was no evidence to suggest happened.
“This is a predatory situation,” Bowen said before AtLee handed down his decision. Bowen said during Tuesday’s hearing that some charges Griffith faces may be amended to contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
If convicted, Griffith faces up to five years imprisonment and a fine of not more than $2,500 on the crimes against nature charge. Each of the sexual battery charges, the piercing of a minor charge and any potential contributing to the delinquency of a minor charge carries a sentence of not more than 12 months and a fine of not more than $2,500.
Griffith’s case attracted media attention from as far away as England when the news of her arrest broke. She will be held without bond at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail. Her next scheduled court appearance is at 1 p.m. Dec. 10 in York County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
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