A seven-member jury acquitted 42-year-old Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski on charges that he groped a woman outside a Virginia bar, CBS News reported. The jury deliberated for about an hour after hearing closing arguments on Wednesday. A 23-year-old woman testified that Krusinski grabbed her buttocks outside the Crystal City bar, news reports said.
Krusinski had once led the air force branch's sexual assault response team.
A bar employee testified that she saw Krusinski groped the 23-year-old, though what transpired may have been different than how the alleged victim described the encounter, according to witnesses who testified.
Defense lawyers argued that there were inconsistencies within the alleged victim's story, particularly in the aftermath of the encounter.
The 23-year-old admitted punching Krusinski a few times, but only in retaliation. One witness, however, said that she hit him many more times and used her cell phone as a weapon, The Associated Press reported.
Several witnesses testified during the trial that they did not see Krusinski ever grope her, as she alleged.
After repeatedly striking Krusinski in the face with her cellphone the woman "changed her strategy" and started throwing uppercuts, according to Rene Miranda who was at the Tortoise and Hare bar on the night of the incident. Miranda had assumed they were a couple, as Krusinski did not defend himself, news reports said.
The Air Force had removed Krusinski from his post with the sex assault unit after his arrest became public. He could have faced up to a year in prison if convicted.
News of Krusinski's arrest in May came just as the Pentagon prepared to release its annual report on the problem of sexual assault in the military.
