Former Kentucky lawmaker and cabinet secretary acquitted of 2022 rape charge

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A former Kentucky lawmaker and cabinet secretary has been acquitted of a rape charge after a trial in Lexington.

A jury found John Tilley, a former Justice and Public Safety Cabinet secretary, not guilty Tuesday after five hours of deliberation, according to local media reports.

Tilley was accused of rape in April 2022 by a woman who told police she blacked out after a man she didn’t know gave her an alcoholic drink at a bar. The man who gave her the drink was not Tilley, according to testimony at trial, and Tilley’s attorneys argued that he and the woman had consensual sex.

Prosecutors alleged at trial that the woman was too intoxicated to consent to sex and was physically helpless, media reported. Video from a hotel showed the woman with Tilley and two other men and she was “unstable on her feet and needed help keeping her balance,” Lexington Police investigators wrote in an affidavit.

A civil suit filed by the woman against Tilley is pending.

Tilley was a Democratic state representative from western Kentucky before joining former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration as the Justice cabinet secretary.