Scion Of Law Firm Defending Schools In Sex Abuse Cases Is Arrested In Child Abuse Sting

A Virginia socialite who had recently divorced a federal judge was arrested after allegedly negotiating with an undercover FBI agent to molest an eight-year-old girl and discussing “taboo parenting,” court records show.

Eleanor Hunton Hoppe of Charlottesville grew up as the daughter of a prominent attorney whose name is part of the law firm now known as Hunton, Andrews, Kurth, which has been paid millions of dollars by Virginia school systems, including for a highly aggressive defense against allegations of sex abuse.

Hoppe went on to marry Joel Hoppe, a magistrate judge with whom she is now divorced and who has petitioned for full custody of the couple’s two young daughters based on the horrifying charges. Hoppe is currently being held in D.C. jail after being indicted on charges of coercion and enticement; attempted transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity; and distribution of child pornography.

“Putting her to bed and waking her up to do a few extra things will be so fun,” Hoppe wrote in a text message to the undercover agent referring to a planned meeting between her, the undercover agent and his purported daughter, according to charging documents.

The documents say Hoppe sent the agent a video and photos of young girls being raped. She also allegedly texted that “a great thing to do is to wake her up by trying new things…that hazy/ dreamlike state is perfect to introduce a variety of new things…especially with someone to help with positioning Her body.”

“If I were you, I’d start building up Thursday telling her that you know it’s gonna be super fun we’re gonna hang out with an old friend of yours. It’s going to be like the best night ever blah blah blah and then once I get there, obviously, it will take a slight turn,” she allegedly wrote.

When confronted by authorities at a hotel in Warrington, Virginia, where she had expected to meet the eight-year-old girl, Hoppe–who has volunteered with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program–claimed she was there “in order to help the UC’s child. Hoppe admitted that she had not alerted the police nor any law enforcement authorities regarding her communications with the UC, his location, or the fact that he was sexually abusing his daughter. Hoppe admitted to distributing the images of child sexual abuse material to the UC and stated that she did so to keep the UC talking,” court documents allege.

A search of her car found lubricant and a pink robe, the documents add.

Her judge ex-husband finalized a divorce with Hoppe in 2021 after alleging that she had repeatedly engaged in extramarital sex with men and women. The arrest, which occurred March 21, was first reported by local news outlet WRIC last week and also by the Daily Mail.

The Hunton family has been a prominent and powerful political family in Virginia for centuries, with Eppa Hunton II serving as a Democrat senator. In 1901, Eppa Hunton III founded the law firm that went on to become Hunton Andrews Kurth. Hoppe’s father, Eppa Hunton V, represented her in her divorce, though court filings list only a public defender in the federal case she is facing in the District of Columbia.

The Hunton Andrews Kurth firm is tightly aligned with Democrat interests, once employing former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, and representing school districts against parents. It tried to take one sexual assault case all the way to the Supreme Court, attempting to set a precedent that one judge said would amount to granting school systems “one free rape” before there was accountability.

The firm defended against a class-action suit that said the Fairfax County Public Schools physically abused special-needs children, and the law firm even hounded a mom who received documents under the Freedom of Information Act showing how much Hunton had been paid by schools, with Hunton attorney Ryan M. Bates repeatedly coming to her home and demanding that she destroy the documents, the mom previously told The Daily Wire.

Hunton Andrews is currently mounting a scorched-earth campaign against a young woman who says that she was repeatedly raped on her Fairfax County middle school campus as a 12-year-old and that she was slashed with a knife, burned with a lighter, anally penetrated, and gang raped. The firm challenged the right of the alleged victim to use a pseudonym in court, even as it hid the names of school officials who allegedly engaged in wrongdoing.

This week, Bates reportedly sought to subject the alleged rape victim to invasive physical exams, even though the alleged rape took place more than 10 years ago, and a rape kit at the time found evidence consistent with her reports. A social worker wrote that “gynecological exams in victims of sexual trauma can make victims feel like they are being raped again.”

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