Former Waynesville police officer accused of rape found guilty

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — A former Waynesville police officer accused of rape was found guilty Monday evening.

The Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to News Center 7 a jury found Peyton J. Kocevar, 22, of Centerville guilty of one count of rape.

The jury either acquitted Kocevar or was hung on the eight other felony charges he faced.

Kocevar was indicted in June 2020 by a Montgomery County grand jury on seven counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition, officials said.

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According to court records, the alleged crimes occurred while Kocevar was a student at Alter High school between 2012 and 2016. Prosecutors allege he raped multiple victims during this time.

Closing arguments in the trial happened Friday morning, with both sides making their final statements to jurors.

“You heard from six women about what happened to them when they were girls in high school, six women told you about what Peyton Kocevar did to them in high school,” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Moore said.

In opening statements Monday, Moore said none of the victims filed police reports.

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“Amazingly, they all thought to themselves, ‘I thought I was the only one’ until a Tweet went out, and that’s when they did come forward and report what happened. That’s how we got to this point where the twelve of you are here to listen to them,” Moore told jurors.

Defense lawyers argued that Kocevar did not rape the women.

“This is not a case of rape. This is not a case of gross sexual imposition, this is not a case of a monster attacking six different people. It’s a case of teens going to an apartment, a party on-going, people go into bedrooms, various things happen,” Jon Paul Rion, the attorney for Kocevar, said.

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