photo by: Chris Conde/ Journal-World

Thomas J. Zarse and defense attorney Dionne Scherff, left, are pictured at a jury trial on June 10, 2022, in Douglas County District Court.

Jurors in Douglas County District Court have acquitted a Topeka man who was accused of raping a former University of Kansas student.

On Friday afternoon, the jury found 22-year-old Thomas John Zarse not guilty of one count of rape. The verdict came after jurors heard conflicting accounts from Zarse and the woman — she testified that Zarse had assaulted her in her apartment between Jan. 11 and Jan. 12, 2020, after she repeatedly said no to his advances; Zarse maintained that the encounter was consensual.

On Thursday, over several hours of questioning, the woman said that Zarse came uninvited to her apartment for drinks and remained until the next morning, and that during that time he assaulted her more than once while she was frozen with terror.

Zarse, however, told the jury on Friday that he thought the woman had been flirting with him, that she never explicitly told him “no,” and that when she seemed hesitant to escalate the situation, he stopped and didn’t try to go any further.

Zarse said that when he and the woman were alone in the apartment and were drinking whiskey, “I felt there was some flirting going on,” and he kissed her. But he said she pulled away and reminded him that he had a girlfriend. He said he then told the woman that he was going to break up with his girlfriend and kissed her again. This time, he said, she reciprocated and rubbed his shoulder.

Zarse said that while they were kissing, he put his hand down the woman’s pants. Then he said the two of them stood up and the woman got into bed and told him to lock the door.

But he said that when he joined her in bed and tried to escalate the encounter again, she pulled away from him. “She wasn’t interested,” he said.

Zarse said that the woman then touched him again and he started to take off his clothes, but that she once again pulled back. He said he then put his clothes back on and fell asleep. That was the end of the physical contact between them, Zarse said.

Months later, Zarse said, he met with the woman about the incident. He said she told him that unless he apologized and started going to counseling, “she was going to ruin my life” by reporting the incident to police.

In closing arguments on Friday, Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden said that the woman never gave Zarse consent to kiss her or to do anything else to her, and that he continued his advances despite her pulling away from him multiple times. But Zarse’s defense attorney, Dionne Scherff, said that the woman had every opportunity to report the alleged crime but didn’t go to the police until October; the encounter with Zarse took place in January. Scherff also said that a month after the incident, the woman was in the District Attorney’s Office to report another assault that she said happened to her a year earlier and did not mention the incident with Zarse at that time.

Scherff argued that the woman reported the incident because she regretted what had happened.

“Regret. That is not rape,” Scherff said.

photo by: Chris Conde

Defense attorney Dionne M. Scherff delivers closing arguments during a jury trial for Thomas John Zarse on June 10, 2022, in a Douglas County District Court.

photo by: Chris Conde

Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden is pictured delivering closing arguments during a jury trial for Thomas John Zarse on June 10, 2022, in a Douglas County District Court.