photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Albert Wilson appears at a hearing on Jan. 29, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

This story was updated at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024.

A civil trial began on Monday in Douglas County District Court for a man who is suing the state for wrongful conviction and incarceration after his rape conviction was overturned and dismissed. The man adamantly denied having sex with the woman, while the state played video of the alleged victim tearfully retelling her memories of that night. 

The man, Albert Wilson, 28, of Wichita, and his attorney, Laurel Driskell, of Salina, are arguing that a Douglas County jury got it wrong five years ago when it found that Wilson, then 20, raped an allegedly intoxicated 17-year-old girl by force or fear in September of 2016 after taking her back to his apartment from a crowded bar.

Wilson was convicted by the jury in January of 2019 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He served two years before his conviction was vacated by the Kansas Court of Appeals, who ruled that his attorney, Forrest Lowry, had provided ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to bring up important evidence at trial, including text messages from the girl that appeared to contradict testimony at trial. 

Wilson was granted a new trial in March of 2021, but Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez, rather than retrying the case, dismissed it in December of 2021. Valdez issued a news release that said Wilson’s case would be resolved through a restorative justice process.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Laurel Driskell, who represents Albert Wilson, appears at a hearing on Jan. 29, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

Wilson’s testimony

Wilson testified in person on Monday and said  that he first met the girl at the Jayhawk Cafe, known as “The Hawk,” at 1340 Ohio St.,  around 11 p.m. He said they met in line waiting to get into the “Boom Boom Room” dance area. Driskell showed video of the two holding hands in the bar, then leaving together at about 12:10 a.m. 

Wilson said that he and the girl were kissing and touching each other before leaving together. He said they went to his apartment, which was about a five-minute walk from The Hawk, and he thought they were going to have sex. He said when they arrived they continued to kiss and touch but that he received a text from his friend at the bar asking him to come back; he said he and the girl then went back. Driskell showed video of the two returning to the bar at 12:25 a.m. 

Wilson is seen walking with the woman before the two part ways. Then Wilson jumps over a rock and runs out of view. He testified Monday that he was talking with friends across the street. The girl is seen walking to the front of the bar and making a phone call. 

Wilson said that the two never had sex and that he never forced or intimidated the girl into going home with him.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Assistant Kansas Attorney General Shon Qualseth appears for the state in the Albert Wilson case on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

On cross-examination, Assistant Kansas Attorney General Shon Qualseth introduced text messages that Wilson had sent to a friend in the weeks following the incident. Driskell objected to those messages since they were not tied to the incident. Qualseth argued that the messages showed the level of credibility that the court should give to Wilson’s statements and that the messages showed the type of behavior that Wilson engaged in. 

Judge Carl Folsom III said that he would allow some of the messages into evidence but that if he later felt like they did not have any bearing on the incident in question, he would not give the messages any weight. 

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Judge Carl Folsom III presides over the Albert Wilson trial for wrongful conviction on Jan. 29, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

Qualseth showed the court a message Wilson allegedly sent to a friend 10 days after the incident that said “Bitches got me [expletive] up here” and another that said “Bitches mad cuz they cant come to the crib unless they [expletive for having sex] or helping.” Qualseth said that the messages showed the intent that Wilson has when bringing a woman to his bedroom. 

In another message that Qualseth asked the court to consider, Wilson allegedly gave another friend advice on how much Xanax to use to make a girl pass out. Folsom did not allow the message into evidence.

Victim’s video deposition

Qualseth then presented a video deposition from the victim, referred to in court as Jane Doe. The video deposition was taken by Qualseth and Wilson’s previous attorney Larry Michel, of Salina, in summer of 2023. 

The woman struggled through her testimony and frequently stopped for breaks as she welled up with tears when confronted with questions about the night of the incident. 

She said she had been drinking with her cousin who was a freshman at the University of Kansas and had given her a tour of the campus earlier that day. She said that she was very drunk by the time she went to the Jayhawk Cafe around 11 p.m.

She met Wilson there and they got along right away. After the two had flirted for a while, they kissed, which the woman said she was OK with, but she was first caught off guard when Wilson groped her and lifted her skirt up. 

“I remember being embarrassed, pushing my skirt back down,” she said.

She said she remembered losing track of her cousin and that she wanted to find her and she followed Wilson out of the bar thinking she would find her cousin there. 

“I was really drunk, in an unfamiliar place. I assumed I would be able to call my cousin once outside,” she testified in the video. 

She said when she was outside she had to focus on her feet to balance and followed Wilson. She said at one point Wilson picked her up and carried her. Then they arrived at Wilson’s apartment, she said. 

She said that Wilson didn’t waste any time showing her the apartment or engaging in conversation but walked her straight to his bedroom and she realized what Wilson’s intentions were, to have sex. 

“I told him I was too drunk to do that,” she said.

She testified that she repeatedly told Wilson ‘no’ and that she wasn’t interested. 

“I realized that wasn’t an option he was going to agree to,” she said.

She said Wilson rummaged around talking to himself about having a condom while she sat on the foot of his bed before he raped her. The woman then began to cry as she recalled the night. 

“Sorry, I don’t like being in that room in my head,” the woman said through tears. 

She said she was too afraid to resist Wilson and that she felt anything she said wouldn’t matter. 

Once the assault was over, she said she was able to find her phone and get out of the apartment. 

“I just thought I had to get out,’ she said. 

Once out of the house she started walking away but Wilson was right behind her to tell her she was going in the wrong direction. She said she remembered something Wilson said in that moment that felt like he was taunting her saying: “You look like you’re about to cry.”

When the two returned to the bar, the woman called her cousin and they left the bar. She said after the incident she was in shock and cried on the bathroom floor. The next day the woman had a sexual assault exam, and because she was a minor the nurse examining her told her that she would have to inform law enforcement, which the woman was not prepared to do yet.  

“I just didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to get involved in the (legal) process,” she said.

She said the incident has left her with anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder and that she only made it through her senior year of high school with accommodations from her teachers. She said she didn’t want to admit something happened to herself or anyone else and that she only told some members of her family about the incident after a website in support of Wilson’s exoneration began targeting her and posting pictures of her from high school online. 

Driskell said in her opening arguments on Monday — to a judge who will decide the outcome rather than a jury — that she would show that Wilson did not rape the teen as a lack of physical evidence demonstrates. She said that the timeline of events also did not support the rape allegation.

Qualseth said in his opening statement that unlike at the criminal trial where the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt was on the state, in this trial, Wilson has the burden to show by a preponderance of the evidence that he did not commit the crime, which, Qualseth said, the evidence would not show. 

The trial is scheduled to continue through Friday, though both Qualseth and Driskell indicated on Monday, they each have one remaining witness to present on Tuesday morning. Wilson is seeking an award of $65,000 for each year he was incarcerated, attorney fees and a certificate of innocence.