On April 5, 2016, Attorneys Gene Libby and Tyler Smith won a jury acquittal for a client charged with Aggravated Assault, Domestic Violence Assault, and Domestic Violence Criminal Threatening in the Oxford County Superior Court, South Paris, Maine. The charges stemmed from a complaint filed by the alleged victim in August 2014. The police failed to conduct a meaningful investigation of the complaint and arrested our client before even being asked about the allegations. During the trial, the State called the alleged victim, two police officers, two emergency room doctors, and the director of the Maine Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner Program as an expert on the physiology of strangulation.
Attorneys Libby and Smith convinced the jury to acquit by focusing their case on the failure of the police to investigate, along with significant inconsistencies in the alleged victim’s account of the assault. During the trial, the defense produced physical evidence and testimony that all pointed to the alleged victim—who had no visible injuries—as the aggressor. The evidence also established the victim was very intoxicated and destroyed many items of the client’s property during her alcohol induced rampage the night of the alleged assault. The defense established that the alleged victim faked certain injuries, claiming that she could no longer dance. The defense introduced pictures of her dancing at a local bar shortly after the assault. Because the alleged victim claimed the use of “strangulation,” the firm’s client was exposed to up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before returning the unanimous not guilty verdicts.
