The trial is over and both defendants are free men.
Less than a week after Matthew Maldonado was found not guilty on charges of kidnapping and first and second degree sexual abuse (details), his alleged accomplice, Nicholas Schultz, was also cleared of felony wrongdoing after spending 11 months in the slammer.
Defense attorneys successfully argued that any and all sexual contact was consensual.
The incident, which took place inside a parking garage near St. Matthews Catholic Church in Northwest Washington, was captured on film. Surveillance tape of Schultz and Maldonado, however, was not the smoking gun prosecutors had hoped it would be, according to comments from one of the jurors (via ABC 7 News):
"Blurry images ... you really couldn't tell heads or tails what was going on, so it made it very difficult."
Schultz will have to return to court on Dec. 3, 2013 to find out if prosecutors will seek a retrial following a hung jury in the misdemeanor charges brought against him.
For now, he is free to go.
Both Schultz and Maldonado were students under Lloyd Irvin, who quickly distanced himself from the accused once the shit hit the fan. The ripple effect -- which brought attention to his own acquittal of rape charges back in 1989 -- forced Irvin to terminate his affiliate program after coming under fire from "lynch mobs" calling for his head.
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