Christopher von Keyserling, a 71-year-old Connecticut Republican who has served on the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting board since 1985, has been charged with fourth-degree sexual assault for an incident in which he pinched a female coworker’s crotch back in December. According to Jezebel, he was arrested this past Wednesday for the crime, which took place on Dec. 8, according to the Greenwich Daily Voice.
The woman, who is 57, crossed paths with von Keyserling in the hallway, where they struck up a conversation about politics. After she referred to today's poltical situation as "a new world," hiis alleged response was, "I love this new world, I no longer have to be politically correct."
According to the Greenwich Daily Voice, here's what happened next: She said that if he was "proud of that I can't help you." His response was to call her a lazy, bloodsucking union employee. She told him “Fuck you,” and walked into her office, where he followed her under the guise of wanting to talk to one of her coworkers. When that coworker arrived, she told von Keyserling that she didn’t have time to talk to him and walked back out. The victim went to follow, as she didn’t want to be left alone with him, and he allegedly reached out and pinched her groin. The warrant says that she threatened to punch him if he ever did that again, and he told her “it would be your word against mine, and nobody would believe you.”
The victim originally did not want to file a criminal complaint against von Keyserling, as she was afraid of possible retribution and the publicity an investigation could bring, but after learning that von Keyserling had allegedly acted in a similar manner against other employees at town hall, she changed her mind, hoping to prevent something happening to other women in the future. Von Keyserling was ordered not to return to the facility where the incident had occurred until further notice and to have no contact with the victim, which he said he understood but that he was sorry he pinched her and that the situation had gotten out of hand. He then told individuals at town hall that the incident was a joke and, during a meeting between the two, he told her that he couldn’t believe that she could be offended.
Connecticut News 12 reports that von Keyserling’s attorney, Phil Russell, calls the allegations against von Keyserling outrageous. "Von Keyserling playfully gave a lady who he knew for 30 years a pinch is what the accusation is," Russell says. "And somehow, everybody's wringing their hands and carrying on that this is a crime, and it just isn't."
First of all, physical retaliation at the end of an argument isn’t "playful," it’s vindictive and totally inappropriate. Second of all, grabbing anyone by the crotch unless they’ve expressly said something along the lines of, “Hey, it’s totally cool if you grab my crotch,” is sexual assault, no matter how you try to spin it. And third, security cameras captured the exchange and corroborated the victim’s version of the incident. In a world where perpetrators of sexual assault often face few repercussions (looking at you, Brock Turner) it seems as though this one may have a more positive outcome.
Von Keyserling was released on a $2,500 bond, and it's currently unknown whether his position will be affected. Just last week, another board member named Christopher Sandys, 46, resigned from his post after he was arrested on charges child pornography possession charges, according to Connecticut News 12. Not a good week for the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting.
