CNN
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The previous chair of the Florida Republican Celebration is not going to be charged with video voyeurism, based on the state lawyer’s workplace in Sarasota County, Florida.
Christian Ziegler was ousted from his role atop the state party earlier this 12 months amid an investigation into a woman’s rape allegations against him. Whereas authorities declined to bring sexual battery charges in opposition to Ziegler, concluding a video of the sexual encounter confirmed it was “doubtless consensual,” they introduced in January that they might search to cost him with illegally recording the encounter.
In a memo obtained by CNN, prosecutors stated they had been declining to pursue video voyeurism fees in opposition to Ziegler as a result of they discovered inconsistencies within the lady’s statements.
“The Sufferer’s expressed incapacity to recall whether or not she consented to recording the sexual exercise alongside along with her inconsistencies pertaining to key particulars of the occasion go away the State unable to show past an affordable doubt that the video in query was filmed with out her data or consent. Accordingly, no fees shall be filed,” the memo states.
Ziegler’s lawyer stated his consumer is “relieved to lastly be utterly cleared of the false allegations and any prison wrongdoing.”
“We cooperated at each stage of investigation and as troublesome because it was, we remained quiet out of respect for the investigation,” lawyer Derek Byrd stated. “On day one, we stated that Mr. Ziegler was utterly harmless. We requested everybody to not rush to judgement and reminded everybody to presume Mr. Ziegler harmless because the Structure instructs. Sadly, many didn’t award that courtesy to Mr. Ziegler, damaging his household, profession, and status all through this course of.”
Ziegler got here beneath investigation in October, after the lady accused him of raping her after she canceled a three-way sexual encounter with Ziegler and his spouse, Bridget, a Sarasota County Faculty Board member, and co-founder of the conservative parental rights group Mothers for Liberty.
In January, after reviewing the video Ziegler recorded on his cellphone of the sexual encounter, the Sarasota Police Division concluded it “doubtless consensual.” Police stated that in an interview with the lady, she was proven the video and advised investigators that she didn’t consent to the recording. In Florida, videotaping a sexual encounter with out consent is a third-degree felony.
“The video exhibits the cellphone was seen both within the Defendant’s hand or on the mattress the place the sexual encounter occurred,” prosecutors wrote within the memo, including that the recording “didn’t seem like taken from any hidden gadget or secretive angle that will have a tendency to indicate {that a} cellphone recording a video was being hidden from the Sufferer.”
Prosecutors stated that inconsistencies within the lady’s story “seem like the results of substantial intoxication and trauma,” noting that she by no means tried to considerably change her account or push authorities to file fees.
Information of the investigation, first reported by the Florida Middle for Authorities Accountability, sparked an instantaneous backlash. There have been calls for the Zieglers to resign from their high-profile positions. Christian Ziegler refused and was voted out of his management function in January. Bridget Ziegler, who was by no means accused of prison wrongdoing, continues to face calls to step down from the Sarasota County Faculty Board.