A 22-year-old man was acquitted by a Palmer jury late last month on charges of sexual assault and assault stemming from a 2019 report.
Kaiden Jimenez was originally accused of sexually assaulting and choking his girlfriend in a classroom at Colony High School, troopers have said. He was 17 years old at the time, but the case was automatically waived into adult court by state law because the charges were high-level felonies.
The case was delayed by the pandemic and continuing litigation, but went to trial in January, said assistant public defender Eric Hedland, who represented Jimenez in the case. Evidence and witness testimony during the roughly three-week trial showed the sex was consensual and there was no assault, Hedland said.
Jimenez was found not guilty on charges including first- and second-degree sexual assault and third-degree assault, according to the verdict.