Husband and wife are both facing criminal charges after wife secretly recorded him but accidentally recorded something controversial.
Sharon Maddox, 41, is currently suspended without pay from her position as a sergeant with Animal Control. She is charged with illegally recording conversations between her husband and a police dispatcher.
Sean Maddox, 41, Sharon’s husband, is a 13-year veteran of the Chesapeake Police Department, where he served as a lieutenant but lost his position with the police department following the charges filed by the dispatcher.
Kristin Paulding, Sharon’s lawyer, said that the tape confirmed Sharon’s suspicion that her husband was sleeping with a local 911 dispatcher. The recording might have remained secret forever if the dispatcher hadn’t accused Sean weeks later of abducting and raping her on April 27, the day after his wife put the recording device in his car.
Sharon shared: “There was actually blonde hair that I found and saw in (her husband’s police car). There was some stuff on Facebook posted that alerted me to something that wouldn’t be normal for him.”
Sharon admits to purchasing a voice-activated audio recorder when she got suspicious of her husband last spring. She then said that she placed the recorder in the back seat of the cruiser, where it remained for three days, April 26-28.
About five weeks later, Sean was arrested for rape, sodomy, abduction, and other offenses on charges brought by his dispatcher girlfriend. The offense date for several of the charges was April 27, coincident with when their conversations were being recorded.
Sharon’s lawyer said she willingly handed over her recordings to her husband’s defense attorney after he was arrested, in an attempt to prove his innocence. But neither Sean nor his girlfriend knew of or consented to the recordings. Under Virginia law, at least one party to a conversation must consent.
When Chesapeake police started questioning Sharon about the recordings, Paulding said, she thought they were looking for evidence against him. Instead, they charged her this week with wiretapping for making the secret tape.
According to the 911 dispatcher’s court testimony, the two began having an affair in January of last year, which quickly progressed to them having sex at least once a week. By April, however, the dispatcher said, she had grown suspicious that the officer was not going to leave his wife, and she began thinking about ending the relationship.
On April 26, she claims, Sean gave her $100 cash to book a hotel room and ordered her to meet him there that night. The dispatcher claims she booked the hotel room but went on a date with another police officer instead during which time she claims Sean called and texted her 25 times.
On her drive home early that morning, she said she was pulled over by Sean and claims he threatened to charge her with a fake offense and forced her to go to the hotel, where he proceeded to rape her orally, anally, and vaginally.point 317 |
She also says he filmed parts of the encounter and threatened to send it to anyone else she tried to date.point 86 | 1
Days later, Sean texted her to say that she had “no idea how hard I had to try to control myself and not do bad things,” later clarifying: “To you, a lot of things, hurt you. And it’s still an option,” he allegedly added. “Keep your head on a swivel.”
However, Sean’s defense attorneys claim that the dispatcher was a despised lover who turned on the officer when he refused to leave his wife.
They claimed that she sent multiple text messages in the days after the alleged assault saying she loved him and wanted to be with him, and accusing him of “ghosting” her when he did not respond.
Attorney Taite Westendorf, Sean’s attorney, called the case a “real-life example of Fatal Attraction” and said the woman had “admitted to being in love with Mr. Maddox and becoming emotionally unstable when he refused to leave his family for her.”
The trial for Sean is set for May 17. His attorney said that he and his client are “extremely confident when all the facts come out and common sense prevails that he is going to be found not guilty of all charges.”
Both Paulding and Westendorf say their clients are supporting each other through their respective trials. The couple shares two children under the age of 18. Paulding said: “They’re definitely a unified front in supporting each other in each of their cases.”
The investigation remains ongoing. Chesapeake Police said they handed the prosecution over to the Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
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