A former CIA officer-trainee was acquitted by a Virginia jury Wednesday of charges that he attacked a female colleague in a stairwell, accusations that spurred a flood of sexual misconduct complaints and reforms at the spy agency. Prosecutors said Ashkan Bayatpour came up behind a fellow trainee in the stairwell at CIA’s Langley, Virginia, headquarters in 2022, wrapped a scarf around her neck and tried to kiss her while making threatening remarks. Bayatpour appealed last summer after he was convicted by a judge of the same misdemeanor assault and battery charge.
Under Virginia law, the Alabama native and former Navy intelligence officer was entitled to a full jury trial in Fairfax County. The panel deliberated several hours Wednesday before its verdict. “I’m grateful that a jury of my peers believed me and found me not guilty,” said the 40-year-old Bayatpour, who resigned from the CIA after the earlier conviction in the case.
“Being falsely accused for the last two years has been a nightmare. My family and I have had so much of our peace, joy, privacy and security stolen from us, and my focus now is putting my life back together after this ordeal.” Bayatpour acknowledged in the earlier bench trial that he wrapped the scarf around the woman’s neck but insisted his actions were intended in jest during a 40-minute walk together.
The incident, his attorney said, was “a joke that didn’t land the way it was intended to land.” The woman’s decision to take the c.