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A former federal employee was sentenced to one year in prison on Friday for sexually assaulting two women near Alexandria Metro stations last spring, with a judge finding he acted in a state of delirium brought on by misprescribed medications and undiagnosed mental illness.
Jeffrey Gary, who formerly served as an assistant division chief at the Federal Communications Commission, was sentenced in the Alexandria Circuit Court. According to his defense attorney, Chris Leibig, the court found that misprescribed medications contributed to Gary's behavior on the night of May 30, 2025, and that Gary demonstrated genuine remorse. A forensic and psychological evaluation was filed with the court on March 13, according to Alexandria Circuit Court records.
Gary will receive credit for time served, Leibig said. Court records show his bond was revoked when he entered a nolo contendere plea on Oct. 30, 2025, meaning he has been held in custody since that time.
When the case first made headlines last summer, it drew widespread attention as a story of a Georgetown Law graduate and federal employee accused of predatory attacks near Metro stations. Leibig said Friday the reality that emerged through the legal proceedings was a more complicated one — a story about mental illness and medications that should never have been prescribed to his client.
The medications Gary was taking the night of the attacks are detailed in a letter of support filed with the court by his parents. According to that letter, Gary had received mental health services since early elementary school and had been diagnosed as an adult with anxiety and depression. On May 30, 2025, he was taking, as prescribed, the maximum dose of Adderall for ADHD and the maximum dose of Prozac for depression and anxiety, with no mood stabilizer, according to the letter.
In mid-June 2025, while out on bond, Gary experienced suicidal ideations and was admitted to Inova Hospital, where he received inpatient psychiatric care for a week, according to the letter. Adderall was promptly discontinued, Prozac was reduced, and a medication FDA-approved for acute bipolar depression was added, the letter states. Gary was discharged with a bipolar diagnosis, according to his parents' letter.
The path to treatment that followed was not straightforward, according to the letter. Gary's parents wrote that they spent more than 40 hours researching residential mental health facilities, but that all but one rejected Gary because of the felony charges against him. When Gary later reported suicidal thoughts to staff at that facility and was transferred to a psychiatric facility, the original facility would not take him back due to the suicide risk, and no appropriate facility in the state would accept him because of the felony charges, according to the letter. Gary subsequently enrolled in an intensive online outpatient program, his parents wrote.
At a joint press conference June 2, 2025, Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire said Gary attacked two women within roughly an hour of each other near the Braddock Road and Potomac Yard Metro stations on the evening of May 30, 2025. One victim had a young child with her at the time. McGuire said a woman in her mid-30s was walking in the 1100 block of Madison Street after exiting the Braddock Road Metro station when Gary approached her from behind, grabbed her, and wrestled her to the ground. The victim resisted, shoved Gary away, and ran to safety before calling 911, McGuire said. No weapon was used.
According to a search warrant affidavit released in July 2025, the victim recalled seeing Gary as she walked toward the station escalator and noticed him following her. She told investigators that after exiting the station, Gary was walking on the opposite side of the road before suddenly crossing and grabbing her from behind, covering her mouth and nose with his hand. The two ended up on the ground before she was able to break free, strike him with her purse and flee, according to the affidavit.
Metro Transit Police played a key role in identifying Gary, according to the affidavit. Security footage showed the victim exiting the Braddock Road station at 9:37 p.m., closely followed by Gary. Investigators used Metro card entry and exit data to identify him as Jeffrey T. Gary — a card registered to the FCC, where Gary had worked as an assistant division chief since 2023, according to the affidavit.
Gary was arrested on June 1, 2025, McGuire announced at the June 2 press conference, and was fired from the FCC following his arrest. A grand jury returned a true bill Sept. 8, 2025, according to court records. He entered a nolo contendere plea on Oct. 30, 2025, and a conviction order was entered on Nov. 6, 2025, according to court records. Sentencing was continued twice before Friday's proceedings, court records show.
Gary faced two Class 5 felony counts of abduction by force or intimidation under Virginia Code 18.2-47 and one Class 1 misdemeanor count of sexual battery under Code 18.2-67.4, according to court records. A victim impact statement was entered into the court record in January, court records show.
On Thursday, Gary read aloud a six-page handwritten statement to the court, addressing the judge, the victims, and their families directly.
"We're here because I did a horrible thing," Gary said in the statement. "There's no other way to frame it."
Gary said he learned the details of his own actions when his attorney presented him with a news article about his arrest, and that he has no memory of the night of the attacks.
"The truth is that my mind and my body betrayed me — did something that I never in a million years thought I could or would do," he wrote.
Gary expressed sorrow for the impact on both victims, including the young daughter of one of the women assaulted at Potomac Yard. "I myself exposed her to an evil she should have never had to have learned," he wrote. "My heart breaks for how I violated her innocence."
In the statement, Gary also disclosed that he is himself a survivor of sexual assault, describing lingering shame, guilt and anxiety from that experience — and calling the act of inflicting those same feelings on others his greatest regret.
Gary said he agreed to the plea arrangement in part to spare the victims from being cross-examined at trial. "I also felt, with the reality of my actions clear, I could not, with clean conscience, stand before this court and declare myself 'not guilty,'" he wrote.
In the months between his arrest and sentencing, Gary wrote that he completed more than 100 hours of therapy, attended an inpatient rehabilitation program, pursued outpatient counseling and weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and has not consumed alcohol since the night of the attacks.
"These are but small steps of atonement, I know," he wrote.
Leibig said the medical findings were central to understanding what occurred.
"Jeff Gary never meant to do this and was incredibly remorseful anyway," Leibig said. "He was acting in a state of delirium brought on by misprescribed medications that should never be given to a bipolar person. Throughout the pendency of the case, his constant concern was for the victims."
Three mental health professionals, including one appointed independently by the court, concluded that Gary's conduct was likely the result of a rare mental state brought on in large part by medication he should never have been taking, Leibig said. Neither Gary nor his medical providers knew he had autism or bipolar disorder — a combination that affects a very small percentage of the population, according to Leibig.
"Neither he nor his providers knew he was bipolar and autistic, both of which together affect a minuscule percentage of the population," Leibig said.
According to a forensic evaluation filed with the court by Dr. Robert Brown, Gary consumed between $50 and $100 worth of alcohol at a bar between leaving work and approximately 8:30 p.m. the night of the attacks. Brown wrote that the medications Gary had been prescribed — fluoxetine, buspirone, and dextroamphetamine — combined with excessive alcohol ingestion would be expected to produce a delirium, which Brown described as a disturbance in attention developing over a short period of time, along with memory deficit, disorientation, and impaired perception. Brown wrote that Gary's bipolar I disorder was not properly recognized or treated before May 30, 2025, meaning he was not on adequate medication the night of the offenses.
The Alexandria Commonwealth's Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
One of the victims, who previously spoke to NBC4 Washington off camera during earlier court proceedings, described the months since the assault as "challenging emotionally and mentally," saying she remains scared to walk outside alone and becomes anxious when someone walks behind her. She praised the support services provided by the city of Alexandria and said she supported the plea arrangement.
Gary is a Georgetown Law graduate who graduated with honors and received an award for pro bono work, according to his parents' letter. He worked in public interest law, including helping draft consumer privacy legislation, before joining the FCC in 2023, according to the letter. At the FCC, he supervised a group of five attorneys and was working 60-plus-hour weeks in the fall of 2024 as his team faced tight deadlines on consequential appellate cases, his parents wrote. In his statement to the court, Gary described a life devoted to service and said he hopes to return to a quiet life.
"I want you to know that all I want to do is retreat to a quiet place in Wisconsin and get back to making peoples' lives better," he wrote. "That's all I ever wanted to do."
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, contact the Alexandria Sexual Assault Center's 24-hour hotline at 703-683-7273 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or a mental health crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day.in prison on
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include an additional on-record statement from defense attorney Chris Leibig, excerpts from a forensic evaluation filed with the court by Dr. Robert Brown, and additional details from a letter of support submitted to the court by Gary's parents.
