STAUNTON — With jury trials looming in both Staunton and Augusta County, in two separate arraignments a former Child Protective Services investigator with Shenandoah Valley Social Services pleaded not guilty Tuesday to numerous sexual assault charges involving a young girl.

Jessica M. Duff, 44, of Raphine, is charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual battery in Staunton. In Augusta County, she is facing single counts of aggravated sexual battery and object sexual penetration of a minor. Duff pleaded not guilty to the 12 felony charges.

Following Duff’s arrest last year, authorities said the victim was a young girl under the age of 14 when the alleged abuse began.

According to Augusta County’s Human Resources Department, Duff is a former Family Services Specialist III with CPS. The Virginia Department of Social Services said the position includes investigating claims of child abuse. Duff’s employment began in 2010 and ended in 2018. Authorities allege she began sexually abusing the young girl in 2017, a year before Duff left the agency.

According to evidence presented at an April bond hearing in Staunton Circuit Court, in 2023 the girl told her mother Duff began sexually abusing her a few years ago. Staunton Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Perry said the alleged abuse continued “for a number of years,” and said the girl told authorities Duff attempted to make her actions appear “very normal” and that she “made it seem like they were in love.” The prosecutor labeled it “grooming behavior.”

During last year’s bond hearing, Duff’s attorney, Dana Cormier, said she worked many years for CPS and was employed in Henrico County in the mental health field when arrested. Besides getting a divorce, Cormier said Duff lost her job and home following the allegations. On Monday in Augusta County Circuit Court, Duff said she remains unemployed.

In an effort to allow the juries to hear certain evidence at the two trials, Cormier recently filed motions noting that Duff’s accuser was involved in an extensive investigation in 2018 involving a man she’d also accused of sexually assaulting her when she was about 5 years old. Cormier wants both juries to know she made the accusations against the man during the same timeframe Duff is now accused of sexually assaulting her, but Cormier said the girl didn’t accuse Duff five years ago during that unrelated investigation.

“The jury needs to know that it didn’t come out at that time,” Cormier said Tuesday in Staunton Circuit Court during a pre-trial hearing. The man was never tried. Court records state Georgia authorities declined to prosecute him because he was already in prison on charges of rape and kidnapping.

The two judges presiding over the Staunton and Augusta County trials have yet to rule on Cormier’s motions.

The Augusta County trial is March 6. The Staunton trial begins March 19 and is expected to last two days.

Duff remains free on bond.

Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on X (formerly Twitter).

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Ex-CPS investigator pleads not guilty to 12 sexual assault charges