Newport News police officer, daycare provider accused of sexual assault say it never happened; lawyers cite mental health concerns about accuser

One morning in December 2016, a Newport News daycare provider had an urgent phone call with a woman she watched as a child years earlier.

“I need to talk to you about what happened between me, you and Robert,” the woman, then 20, told Kristi Lynn Cline, bringing up “the time” they had sex together.

“What? I never had sex with you,” Cline said she replied, according to an account she gave police investigators in early 2019.

When the woman replied “Oh really?” and “I thought we did,” Cline was adamant. “I never touched you,” she said.

“I must be confused,” the woman replied, according to Cline’s account to detectives.

The videotape of Cline’s January 2019 interview with two Newport News detectives was played in Newport News Circuit Court this week at the sexual assault trial for Cline and Robert F. Jones, a former Newport News police officer. The two, arrested in early 2019 and face several felony sexual assault counts, deny any sexual encounters ever took place.

The jury trial began Monday with testimony from the woman, now 25, who said the pair abused her repeatedly for more than a year starting in early 2009. She was between 12 and 14 at the time. The case was sent Wednesday to the jury, which broke for the day without reaching a verdict. Deliberations are expected to continue Thursday morning.

Cline told police in the 2019 interview that when she denied during the phone call that any sexual activity took place, the woman’s then-husband chimed in on the speaker phone.

“She’s been doing this the past two or three days,” the husband said, according to Cline. She said he then relayed that his wife was accusing several other men of rape, including her father-in-law, her brother-in-law, a man named “Mr. G” and others.

The accuser testified this week that several other assaults didn’t happen, including those referenced by her husband. But she said Cline and Jones had sexual relations with her so regularly that “it became part of my daily routine.” The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press generally do not identify accusers in sexual assault cases without their permission.

Deputy Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Pass, an outside prosecutor brought in to handle the case, asserts that Jones and Cline were having an affair and had the girl participate in the sexual activity.

Timothy Clancy, a lawyer for Jones, and Ron Smith, a lawyer for Cline, contend the woman is delusional and the sexual assaults never happened — even if she thinks they did. They contended she made the initial allegations to Cline around the time she was involuntarily committed four times for mental health treatment and wasn’t taking her prescribed medications.

Pass said the accuser hasn’t had any mental health issues to speak of in several years, is actively employed, has a real estate license and has sole custody of her daughter.

“She’s a survivor,” the prosecutor said.

Jones, now 50, testified Tuesday the woman got in touch with him on Facebook Messenger earlier in the day that she spoke to Cline. She told Jones that he’s a father figure and missed talking to his family.

But she expressed concern in a message that Jones and Cline were “out to kill me.” Prosecutors contend that was a reference to something the accuser testified to earlier in the week — that Cline and Jones threatened to kill her if she told anyone of the abuse.

Jones testified he previously blocked the girl on Facebook because of anti-police posts she made after an incident in Ferguson, Missouri. But he said he asked for the girl’s phone number and called her later that morning, recording the conversation with a digital recorder.

Jones told the girl that if she needed to talk, he was always there for her, but he voiced confusion during the call, saying at one point, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jones said he called Cline and told her the woman wasn’t making sense, asking Cline to call her. Cline told investigators she did, then called Jones back.

“I asked if he was sitting down,” she said, and told him “you need to be aware of this.”

Later in the day, Jones said he told his superiors at the Newport News Police Department that a sexual assault report might be filed against him, writing up a memo and a copy of the recorded phone call.

The woman filed a sexual assault complaint with the Williamsburg Police Department nearly two years later, in late 2018. That department referred it back to Newport News, ultimately leading to the current charges.

During the 2019 interview, Cline told police the girl began coming to her home daycare in the fall of 2008. Though the girl was 12, older than most of her daycare kids, Cline said her mother had caught her with a boy at home and didn’t want her to be home alone.

The girl would help look after feeding and changing the toddlers and would want to participate in the conversations Cline would have with other adults. She said she once took the girl on a trip to Ohio to pick up her other kids.

“She was an attention-driven teenager,” Cline said in the police interview, saying the girl would sometimes wear low-cut tops home from school and would ask Cline questions about sex, such as how old she was when she first had it. Cline said she advised the girl to dress more modestly.

Cline, now 46, also told investigators she had Jones talk to the girl and that he advised her that she needed to “stay a kid” as long as she could.

Jones testified he met Cline through their sons’ football teams.

When he was on day shift in that area, he said, he said he stopped by Cline’s home for bathroom breaks, explaining that it’s safer for police to take bathroom breaks in private homes than in places such as convenience stores. The families later became friends.

Jones testified that he had met the girl about “10 to 15 times” when he’d stop by Cline’s place — and a couple times at a pool party at a neighbor of Cline’s — but that nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. He testified there were never any sexual relations involving him, Cline and the girl — or between any of them.

Jones said in early 2017 — a few weeks after his phone call with the woman — he responded to a 911 call involving a “person with a mental issue and a child” at a Denbigh apartment. The woman who answered the door was the accuser.

“She said, ‘Officer Jones! Oh, I miss talking to you,” Jones said. He testified that he replied that “you said some ugly things, and I can’t talk to you.”

Jones called another officer to the scene and waited outside. The girl ended up being involuntarily committed that day for mental health treatment.

Clancy also introduced binders of police logs showing Jones’ activity throughout each day — when he’d mark himself “active” and “inactive” to respond to calls. The logs showed, the lawyer contended, that Jones wouldn’t have had time to commit the sexual acts at Cline’s home.

Pass said Jones was in most cases marking himself as “active” and “inactive,” implying the assaults were possible.

Earlier in the week, the accuser testified that her former brother-in-law saw her and Jones having sex in Cline’s living room. But the brother-in-law testified this week that never happened.

Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com

©2022 Daily Press. Visit dailypress.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.