photo by: Sara Shepherd/Journal-World File Photo

In this Journal-World file photo from Jan. 9, 2019, Albert N. Wilson takes the stand at his own trial in Douglas County District Court.

A trial has been scheduled for next summer in a wrongful conviction lawsuit that a man accused of rape filed against the State of Kansas.

The man, Albert Wilson, 26, of Wichita, was convicted of rape in Douglas County District Court in January 2019. On appeal, his conviction was vacated, and he was granted a new trial in March of 2021. Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez declined to retry the case and dismissed it on Dec. 22, 2021, as reported by the Journal-World.

In April, Wilson, who had spent more than two years in prison, filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the state. In May, Shon Qualseth with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office filed a response denying Wilson’s claims. The response states that Wilson’s “own conduct caused or brought about his conviction” and that he failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

As the Journal-World has reported, the alleged victim in the case, a girl who was 17 at the time, met Wilson at The Hawk, a popular bar near the University of Kansas campus. She testified that she was drunk and that Wilson, then a 20-year-old KU student, lifted her skirt and assaulted her at the bar and then walked her to his house a couple of blocks away, raped her, then walked her back to the bar.

Wilson was convicted of rape for the incident at the house, but the jury hung on the incident at the bar. District Court Judge Sally Pokorny eventually ordered a retrial, saying defense counsel could have raised questions based on thousands of text messages, which had not been used as evidence in the trial, to influence the jury’s verdict.

Wilson is represented by attorney Larry Michel, and his wrongful conviction claim will go to trial on Aug. 28, 2023.

Michel is also representing Rontarus Washington Jr., who has notified Douglas County that he intends to sue for wrongful incarceration after he was jailed for more than five years while standing accused in the murder of 19-year-old Justina Altamirano Mosso — a case that resulted in a hung jury in 2019.

The Douglas County DA also declined to retry Washington’s case in December of 2021.