A former Capital High School student was found not guilty of sexual assault this week.
Dallas King, 19, was acquitted Wednesday on a charge of second-degree sexual assault, his mother said in an email Thursday.
"We are grateful that justice was finally served, that this nightmare is over and that we can now move on with our lives," Patricia King wrote, adding that she had been advised by her son's lawyer, Dan Holstein, not to discuss the case in detail.
Kanawha prosecutors filed the charge against King when he was 17. Juvenile cases are sealed and court proceedings, like the trial, are closed to the public. Lawyers also are prohibited from speaking about juvenile cases.
For a time, though, the case was public.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey returned the case to juvenile status last year when she allowed King to back out of a deal he'd made with prosecutors. King agreed to be moved to adult status and pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse, under that deal. The abuse charge carried a possible one- to five-year jail sentence. Prosecutors said it was offered to keep the alleged victim from having to testify at a trial.
Not long after taking the deal, King hired lawyer Katherine Dooley, who filed a motion to withdraw the plea. Dooley argued that King had been rushed into taking the deal and had been given incorrect information about how long he would have to register as a sex offender.
Dooley also accused prosecutors of trying to save face at the expense of a teenager by quickly securing the deal before a charge against the former principal of Capital High, Clinton Giles, was dismissed.
The day after King pleaded guilty to the abuse charge, a misdemeanor charging Giles with failing to immediately report the alleged assault was dismissed by a judge. Giles, who had been an educator for 37 years, retired the day he was charged.
Giles wrote on his public Facebook page about King's acquittal.
"It is not possible for me to express in writing here the sadness, sorrow, and regret I feel for the two students and their families who have been put through this ordeal which has lasted for the better part of 19 months now!" the post states.
Patricia King wrote that the jury in her son's case took less than two hours to find him not guilty.
"The jury of eleven Caucasians and one African-American heard nearly two days of testimony. After receiving their instructions from the Judge, they deliberated for one hour and twenty minutes before returning a not guilty verdict. I would like to thank the jurors for listening attentively and reviewing the facts and evidence," she wrote. "I would also like to thank my son's attorneys Mrs. Kitty Dooley and Mr. Dan Holstein for the excellent legal representation that they provided my son. Last, I would also like to thank my church family at Grace Bible Church for their unwavering support and prayers for my son and our family during this challenging ordeal."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.