Defendant Acquitted of All Charges in Rape Case

Perry, Georgia: In May 2022, attorney J. Travis Griffin obtained an acquittal in a rape case pending in Houston County Superior Court.  Mr. Griffin convinced the jury that the allegations against the Defendant were unfounded, and the jury voted to acquit.

The Defendant in this case met a woman on Tinder and invited her to his house.  The woman accepted the invitation on the condition that she was not coming to his house for sex.  After arriving at his house with alcohol and unknown drugs, the woman and the Defendant drank, shared intoxicants, and eventually retired to the bedroom and had sex.

Afterwards, the woman confronted the Defendant, saying she did not want to have sex and accused the Defendant of rape.  The woman contacted law enforcement, who removed the Defendant from his home, searched his house, interrogated him, and eventually arrested him for rape.  During the investigation, controlled substances that are sometimes consistent with “date rape” drugs were found in the woman’s system.

At trial, Mr. Griffin’s cross examination of the woman revealed several issues that cast doubt on her version of events. Her possession of numerous controlled substances could explain why she had certain substances in her system.  Mr. Griffin’s cross-examination of the case agent revealed procedural defects in the investigation. The examination also revealed evidence of confirmation bias that prevented the investigation from taking all the known facts into consideration when deciding to charge the Defendant with rape.

Finally, the Defendant took the stand in his own defense and told the jury what happened that night, from beginning to end.  The Jury found the Defendant “not guilty” after a four-day trial.