Lexington jury acquits former Kentucky cabinet secretary John Tilley of rape charge

A former Kentucky lawmaker was acquitted on a charge of first-degree rape by a jury in Lexington Tuesday.

The trial for John Tilley, who once served as secretary of the Justice and Public Safety cabinet under former Gov. Matt Bevin, lasted two days in Fayette Circuit Court. The jury returned a not guilty verdict after five hours of deliberation, according to a report from the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Tilley, 55, was accused of sexual assault by a woman who said she could not remember what had happened, only that she woke up in a hotel room at the downtown Marriott City Center in April 2022 mostly unclothed. The woman, known in court documents as "B.D.", was 21 years old at the time.

Tilley pleaded not guilty to the charge in August of that same year.

During opening statements Monday, prosecutors said the woman was physically incapable of giving consent because she was intoxicated. Prosecutors also argued the security camera footage that recorded Tilley and the woman inside and outside the hotel shows the woman stumbling in a manner that made it appear she was not coherent during the encounter.

Tilley's attorneys said he and two colleagues, who were all political consultants, had been out celebrating in Lexington when they were approached by the woman while walking back to their hotel. They denied the woman had been assaulted by Tilley, but said he did have sexual relations with her in a room at the hotel and all their actions were consensual.

More: Kentucky man charged with hate crime, accused of threatening Palestinian-American with gun

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: John Tilley acquitted: Former KY lawmaker found not guilty of rape