More than two months since Patrick McNamara was arrested and charged with assaulting a woman on the Rivanna Trail, a crime he insists he did not commit, McNamara says he doesn’t understand why the charges haven’t been dropped.

“Let me be very clear. This is not a ‘he said, she said’ crime,” McNamara, 37, told Charlottesville Right Now of the January 12 assault and his arrest six days later on a misdemeanor assault and battery charge. “This is a ‘she said, he-has-a-ridiculous-amount-of-evidence-to-prove-with-certainty that-he-didn’t-do-it’ crime.”

McNamara, who was released on bond the day of his arrest and has a trial set for April 15, says police video taken around 10:12am the morning of the attack shows the victim telling police the attack happened about 20 minutes earlier and her husband confirming she had texted him about it at around 9:45am. Data from McNamara’s apartment key fob shows him returning to the building at 9:41am. His building is about a seven-minute walk from the trail, and McNamara insists he was never on the trail that day.

McNamara says location data from Google shows he was walking on E. High St. at 9:34am and was back at his building at 9:39am, two minutes before he swiped his key fob to enter. He says additional evidence from his work laptop and from work communications further exonerate him.

In late January, Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis told Charlottesville Right Now he had confidence in his department’s investigation.

“We wouldn’t have charged somebody if we didn’t think they did it, but we have to prove that,” he said. The investigation into the two Rivanna Trail assaults on Jan. 12 and a third in October remained under investigation, he said.

McNamara says he has learned that the victim who identified him as her assailant did not do so through any formal police process.

“The way that she identified me is that a couple of people took public photographs of me and texted her those photographs,” he said.

He points out that he has only been charged in one of the two Jan. 12 assaults, and says the prosecution told his attorney that the second victim, who reported an afternoon assault on the trail, has not identified him as her assailant. 

Reached after McNamara’s most recent interview, Kochis declined comment. Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania also declined to comment on a pending case.

McNamara says he feels it’s important to speak publicly about the evidence, despite receiving legal advice to the contrary. He’s fighting an eviction from his apartment and has been suspended from work since his arrest.

“I think the reason I’m doing it… is because it’s important for the public to have a really good understanding of the process that can happen to you as an innocent civilian in a local town like Charlottesville,” he said. “I don’t think I should have ever been arrested. I don’t think probable cause was met. It’s been two months of hell.”

 

Listen to the full interview with Patrick McNamara here.

Listen to the January 26 interview with Chief Michael Kochis here.