I’m relieved to report another complete jury trial victory in a case that never should have been prosecuted in the first place. After a full week of trial and approximately five hours of jury deliberation, a Forsyth County jury saw through a fabricated sexual assault claim and returned not guilty verdicts on all counts against my client, Mark.

But here’s what should outrage every citizen: Mark spent over a year in jail simply waiting for his day in court. No prior criminal record. No history of violence. No previous accusations. Just a man whose life was destroyed the moment an allegation was made—an allegation that a jury would eventually reject completely. And at each bond hearing, the prosecutors opposed bond.  Finally, in mid-2025, the judge granted bond (over the prosecutor’s objection)!

This is the terrifying reality of our criminal justice system: you can be accused at any time, arrested immediately, and lose everything before you ever get a chance to prove your innocence.  And, in this case, the investigator arrested FIRST, then started interviewing witnesses.

The Nightmare Begins

On May 26, 2024, Mark’s life changed forever. He had attended a party the night before with friends—a casual gathering at a house in Cumming where people were drinking, socializing, and having a good time. Mark met a woman named Jamie at this party. They flirted, exchanged numbers, and had completely consensual sexual contact.

The next day, barely 24 hours after the party, law enforcement descended on Mark’s home with arrest warrants. He was charged with two counts of Aggravated Sodomy and one count of Aggravated Assault. His bond? Denied. He would sit in jail for over a year awaiting trial, while the woman who accused him went on with her life, planning her wedding to another man.

Think about that for a moment. No criminal history. No prior allegations. No convictions. Yet Mark lost over a year of his life behind bars based solely on an accusation.

This is what’s fundamentally broken about how we handle sexual assault allegations in this country. The accusation alone is treated as proof of guilt. The accused is punished before trial, before evidence is presented, before a jury can even hear the case.

A Case Built on Lies and Omissions

When we finally got to trial the State’s case fell apart under scrutiny. And here’s the most damning part: the investigator had 2 eye witnesses to facts that would help my client and provide a motive for the alleged victim to lie.  He failed to act on that information.  

There were approximately 8-10 people at this party. These were witnesses who saw Mark and Jamie throughout the entire evening. They observed their interactions, their behavior, their level of intoxication. They knew what happened that night.

The State called only 2 of them to testify (one being the alleged victim, so really, only 1 witness from the party).

Why? Because the other witnesses didn’t support the narrative Jamie was trying to sell. When investigators interviewed everyone who attended that party, not a single person reported seeing anything improper. No one saw Mark force himself on Jamie. No one saw her in distress. No one saw the alleged assault or anything leading up to it. In fact, not one witness corroborated Jamie’s claim that Mark was even touching her inappropriately.

The jury didn’t have the entire set of facts.  The investigator cherry-picked only the facts that helped him.

The Ever-Changing Story

Jamie’s story changed every time she told it. Let me be clear: this wasn’t a traumatized victim struggling to recall painful details. This was someone constructing a narrative after the fact, adding details that would make her sound more credible, and conveniently “forgetting” anything that contradicted her accusation.

To her fiancé (the morning after): She gave him some details about being assaulted.  Nothing about flirting with a complete stranger.

To hospital staff (that afternoon): She provided one version of events, claiming she couldn’t remember how she got into the bedroom or how her clothes came off.

To the SANE nurse: She added new details, suddenly remembering specific acts and positions she hadn’t mentioned before.

On the witness stand:  On cross-examination, she remembered asking Mark to strip…something she never told her fiancé.

When pressed on her convenient memory gaps, Jamie actually said: “Everyone keeps asking me over and over again if I remember, and I don’t remember.”

You know what that tells me? She didn’t remember because it didn’t happen the way she claimed. She was manufacturing a story to explain away her own choices—choices she regretted after the fact.

The Real Story: Regret Turned Into Rape

Here’s what actually happened:

Jamie went to a party with her friend Samantha. She was engaged to be married to Martin, a Forsyth County Sheriff’s deputy. At this party, she met Mark. They hit it off. They flirted. They exchanged phone numbers. She voluntarily gave him her number.

Throughout the night, she voluntarily took her shirt off.  She stayed at the party even after her friend offered her multiple rides home.

Eventually, Jamie and Mark ended up alone in a guest bedroom. They had consensual sexual contact. Mark was completely upfront about this when police questioned him the very next day—he didn’t hide it, didn’t deny it, didn’t lawyer up and refuse to talk. He told the truth: they had a consensual sexual encounter.

Then Jamie left the next morning and reality hit her: she had cheated on her fiancé. She panicked. She spent two hours at home trying to figure out what to do. And then she made a choice: rather than take responsibility for her actions, she would claim she was assaulted.

No Corroboration. Zero. None.

Let me emphasize this again because it’s critical: Not one single witness at that party corroborated any part of Jamie’s story about improper behavior.

In fact, I had to call two witnesses (that the Investigator found not to be important) who were at the party.

One witness thought Jamie might have been “interested” in Mark based on a brief conversation they had.  She shared this with her husband, who saw Jamie and Mark together all night having fun and enjoying each other’s presence.

The State knew this. They had statements from all these witnesses. And they made a calculated decision not to call them to testify.

The Verdict: Justice at Last

After five hours of deliberation, the jury returned with their verdict: Not guilty on all counts.

Count 1 Aggravated Sodomy: Not guilty.

Count 2 Aggravated Sodomy: Not guilty.

Count 3 Aggravated Assault: Not guilty.

Complete vindication. Mark was looking at more than 2 life sentences if convicted!

But here’s the tragedy: Mark will never get back that year he spent in jail. He’ll never recover the income he lost, the career that was destroyed, the relationships that were damaged. His name was dragged through the mud. He was branded a rapist before he ever had a chance to defend himself. 

But, now he is free.