The Courier Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader, and several other state sources, reported Wednesday the acquittal of former Kentucky lawmaker John Tilley in Fayette County Circuit Court.
Originally charged with first-degree rape, a “not guilty” verdict was returned after five hours of deliberation.
Having once served as secretary of the Justice and Public Safety cabinet under former Governor Matt Bevin, and as an 8th District State Representative, Tilley was originally arrested for this crime in the summer of 2022 and was held without bond.
That August, Tilley’s attorneys, Steve Schroering and Chris Spedding, told the Courier-Journal their client was “innocent of the charge” and had later turned himself in to Lexington investigators in order to cooperate with the investigation.
He was a five-term state legislator, who spent seven years as chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Now 55 years old, Tilley was accused of sexual assault by an unnamed woman who said she “could not remember what happened, only that she woke up in a hotel room at the downtown Marriott City Center in April 2022 mostly unclothed.”
She was 21 years old at the time of the incident.
Tilley’s attorneys stated he and two colleagues, all political consultants, had “been out celebrating in Lexington,” when they were approached by this woman while walking back to their hotel.
They denied the woman had been assaulted, but said he did have sexual relations with her in a room at the hotel, and all their actions were consensual.
