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The forcible sodomy case against a former University of Mary Washington police officer was sent to the Fredericksburg Circuit Court grand jury Thursday.

William R. Somers, who was a sergeant with the university, and the transgender woman who accused him of the sex offenses were in the Fredericksburg General District courtroom during the preliminary hearing. She testified for more than an hour.

After the testimony, Judge John Stevens said it was a difficult case, but decided there was probable cause to send it to the grand jury, which will determine whether to indict Somers on felony sodomy charges that carry a sentence of five years to life.

Virginia State Police charged Somers in December after the woman said he forced her to have sex with him at the university’s Anderson Center on the afternoon of Saturday, Dec. 12.

After the allegations, Somers, a 35-year-old Bowling Green resident who had been on the UMW force since 2011, resigned.

In court on Thursday, the woman, a 24-year-old convenience store and auto dealership clerk, said she had known Somers casually for three years. Most of that time, the officer knew her as a man. The witness testified that she left for several months to undergo a gender conversion and returned to the area in April living as a woman.