Jury Finds Georgetown Law Professor Guilty of Assaulting His Wife and Obstructing Justice

            WASHINGTON – Shon Hopwood, 50, of the District of Columbia, was found guilty today by a Superior Court jury on charges of assault, contempt, and obstruction of justice, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

            Hopwood was found guilty of three counts of simple assault, five counts of contempt, and two counts of obstructing justice. Superior Court Judge Errol Arthur scheduled sentencing for September 18, 2025.

            “A D.C. jury is demanding accountability from the batterer who not only beat his wife but was on the faculty of Georgetown Law teaching criminal law,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. “This D.C. jury wasn’t afraid to demand accountability no matter who the defendant is.”

            On September 21, 2023, the defendant, a Georgetown Law Professor and convicted felon, got into an ongoing verbal argument with his wife, the victim, in front of their children.  The defendant then assaulted the victim when she attempted to retrieve her phone and purse from their shared bedroom by repeatedly pushing and physically throwing her out into the kitchen.  The victim suffered multiple injuries, including several bruises on her body. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) only learned of the incident and injuries when, following a welfare check conducted at the home on September 24, 2023, it was discovered that the defendant had ordered the victim to remain in the basement and coached their children to lie about her whereabouts. Hopwood ran away from the house when he heard on an MPD officer’s radio that law enforcement had found the victim. Through additional investigation, MPD and USAO discovered a history of the defendant’s chronic emotional and physical domestic abuse to his wife stretching back several years.  The defendant was also charged with, and found guilty of, assaulting the victim in April 2023 in addition to the September 2023 incident.

            A trial date in this case was initially scheduled for June 3, 2024, and the victim and the victim’s daughter failed to appear for that trial despite being subpoenaed by the government. An investigation involving law enforcement in multiple jurisdictions revealed that Hopwood had been contacting the victim in violation of the court’s pre-trial stay away order for several months and had been pressuring her not to cooperate with the government. This culminated in a scheme the defendant initiated, and worked with the victim to implement, that would keep the victim and their children out of the jurisdiction on the trial date in an attempt to get the case dismissed. The victim went along with the defendant’s instructions, fled the jurisdiction, and did not show up for trial (and kept her daughter away from trial).  As a result of his actions, Hopwood was subsequently indicted on five counts of contempt and two counts of obstruction of justice in addition to the initial counts of misdemeanor assault.

            Joining in the announcement was Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department.

            This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department with assistance from the United States Marshal Service, and the criminal investigators and investigative analysts from the United States Attorney’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Monisha Rao and Katherine Ballou.