A jury has found a Hart Powell, S.C. client not guilty of sexual assault of an intoxicated person. Attorneys Michael F. Hart and Emily Kehl tried the case and won an outright acquittal.

The accusation was as serious as they come. A woman our client spent the night with later said she had blacked out from drinking and never agreed to sex. Our attorneys dug into the facts, found evidence that told a very different story, and brought that story to the jury.

The Accusation

Our client spent the night with a woman. She later said she had blacked out from drinking and had not agreed to sex. That accusation became a criminal charge.

These are among the hardest cases to defend. There are rarely other people in the room. The case often comes down to one person’s account against another’s, and the accuser’s memory of the night sits at the center of everything.

How Wisconsin Treats These Cases

Wisconsin law makes it a crime to have sex with a person who is too intoxicated to understand what they are doing. The law asks two separate questions, and both matter.

The first question is whether the person really was that impaired. The second question is whether the accused person knew it.

That second question does a great deal of work, and juries do not always hear it explained clearly. A person can drink heavily and still talk, move, and act like themselves. The state carries the burden of proving that the defendant recognized a level of intoxication that made agreement impossible. If the state cannot prove that, the charge fails.

What the Defense Investigation Turned Up

Michael Hart and Emily Kehl investigated the case. That investigation produced three categories of evidence:

Text messages
Surveillance video
Witnesses

Together, this evidence sharply undercut the accuser’s credibility in front of the jury. None of it would have reached the courtroom without attorneys who went looking for it.

What the Jury Learned About Alcohol Blackouts

The defense also called a nationally recognized witness on alcohol and memory. That testimony answered the question sitting underneath the whole case: how can a person act normal and remember nothing?

Here is what the jury learned:

An alcohol-induced blackout affects memory, not behavior. The brain stops recording. It does not stop working.
A person going through a blackout can behave normally and still have no recollection of what happened afterward.
Other people interacting with that person have no way to tell. There is no outward sign.

That final point closed the loop. Even if the accuser genuinely could not remember the night, that condition would not have been apparent to anyone around her.

The jury found our client Not Guilty.

Facing a Similar Charge? Talk to Us Today.

An accusation is not a conviction. Cases like this one turn on evidence that surfaces only when someone goes looking for it, and on testimony that gives a jury the background it needs to weigh what it hears.

Hart Powell, S.C. defends people against the most serious charges Wisconsin brings, in both state and federal court. If you or someone you love is under investigation or already charged, do not wait, and do not talk to police alone.

Call Hart Powell, S.C. at (414) 271-9595 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a confidential consultation.