ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Military Institute’s athletic director faces a misdemeanor sexual battery charge in Virginia.

Reginald “Reggie” Franklin is accused of groping the wife of an alumnus during a school function, a dinner party in McLean in Fairfax County on Feb. 22.

A lawyer for the 57-year-old Franklin says his client is innocent and that the allegations are untrue.

Attorney Phoenix Harris also says Franklin turned himself in to police in Virginia on July 1 and has since returned to New Mexico.

Franklin has worked at NMMI for more than 24 years, and the school says he is in the process of retiring.

NMMI is a college preparatory high school and a junior college located in Roswell.

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