CHARGES BROUGHT ESSENTIALLY WITHOUT INVESTIGATION, UPON ACCUSATION ALONE: 20-year-old found not guilty of raping University of Akron student.

Charles Anderson, 20, of North Jackson was acquitted last Thursday by a jury made up of seven women and four men. The trial lasted two and a half days and the jury came back with a decision in about an hour.

“I would never sexually assault a girl or rape a girl,” Anderson said from his lawyers office near Youngstown surrounded by his mother and step father.

“I’m just relieved and thank God that I’m able to wake up today and wake up in my bed,” he continued.

The University of Akron student told campus police Anderson sexually assaulted her at her sorority house Alpha Delta PI on Spicer Street. The alleged assault happened around 5 a.m. as the victim said she was surprised and attacked.

Anderson did not testify in court but told police he and the victim had sent text messages to each other before and after the incident. The actual texts were not allowed in court. . . .

The victim and Anderson had been friends since middle school and met on social media, according to him. He said the two had been in a relationship and the September visit was not the first time he had gone to see the alleged victim at the University.

“There are 16 women in the sorority house,” said Anderson’s attorney Edward Hartwig. “There was the testimony from the alleged victim that she fought and she did yell. We thought it would have been prudent for officers to interview the women in the house that night and that wasn’t done.”

Hartwig said police only interviewed two women in the house some six months after the incident and a week before the trial.

Anderson said he has a new job and is working to reclaim his life and get his name back.

Note that the “victim” isn’t named.