photo by: Sara Shepherd

Andrew J. Flood reacts after being acquitted of rape and other sexual assault charges on Monday, March 4, 2019, following a weeklong trial in Douglas County District Court. Flood is seated with his attorneys Tricia and Tom Bath.

Updated at 3:30 p.m. Monday

A man has been acquitted of all charges in a rape case stemming from a 2015 incident in rural Douglas County.

A jury on Monday found Andrew J. Flood, 24, not guilty of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and attempted aggravated criminal sodomy against an unconscious of physically powerless victim. The verdict, delivered at 12:30 p.m. after less than three hours of deliberations, followed a weeklong trial in Douglas County District Court.

Judge James McCabria briefly addressed Flood before he left the courtroom.

“Mr. Flood, this case is concluded. You are free to go about your business,” McCabria said.

Flood, formerly of Lenexa, has been free on $30,000 bond since shortly after charges against him were filed in June 2016. He works as a wildland firefighter in Oregon.

His charges stemmed from a November 2015 encounter with an 18-year-old University of Kansas student he’d met a couple of weeks earlier in Lawrence.

According to a previously filed Douglas County Sheriff’s Office affidavit:

After the two agreed to meet up on a Saturday night, Flood drove to Lawrence and picked the woman up at her sorority house. They parked at Clinton Lake in the early-morning hours, looked at stars, sipped from a bottle of vodka and got into the backseat.

The woman claimed that after Flood started kissing her, she felt intoxicated and blacked out. She said he assaulted her while she slipped in and out of consciousness.

Flood told detectives that the woman initiated the sexual activity and that when she seemed to experience a sudden medical emergency, he stopped the contact. He said he tried repeatedly to wake her at the lake and while driving her back to her house. There, he took her inside, got her a drink of water and left after she went upstairs. She reported the incident later that morning.

In the years leading up to the trial, disputes over lab results and what caused the woman to pass out were the subject of numerous legal filings by prosecutors and Flood’s defense attorneys, Tom Bath and Tricia Bath.

Arguments over the woman’s lucidity included a test showing her blood-alcohol concentration several hours after the incident was .01 — far below .08, the level considered too drunk to legally drive, according to previous court filings. She reported taking an antihistamine and an antidepressant earlier that day, both of which contain warnings against mixing with alcohol. The woman had fainting spells before, when having blood drawn and viewing a medical procedure, but said she’d never been diagnosed with an explanation for them.

Lab testing of a vodka bottle seized from Flood’s car and testing of the woman’s urine revealed no presence of any “date-rape” drug.

Before the criminal case went to trial, Flood filed a civil lawsuit against the woman in Johnson County District Court in February 2018, claiming that her “intentional, reckless, and false” accusations caused him emotional and mental distress.

He said “the stigma of committing an act he did not do” warranted financial damages from the woman, according to filings in the Johnson County case. The woman filed a countersuit, also asking for damages, claiming that Flood sued her to intimidate, harass and “chill” her from cooperating with authorities in the criminal case.

In late December, both sides agreed to dismiss the civil lawsuit. Publicly available documents don’t indicate whether a financial settlement was part of that agreement.