La Plata, MD – Stephen Daniel Lancaster, 25 of Newburg, was found not guilty on all counts by a Charles County Circuit Court jury late Thursday, Oct. 8 after a three-day trial before Judge H. James West.
Lancaster was found not guilty of sex offense second degree-by force; sex offense second degree while a person is mentally or physically incapacitated; third-degree sex offense; and second-degree assault—all stemming from an incident Sept. 8, 2013 when the 40-year-old victim became intoxicated while taking Xanax and Zoloft.
According to testimony, the woman was distraught because of a fight that occurred at her daughter’s bachelorette party. When she tried to restore peace, her daughter “uninvited” her to the wedding. As a result, she left the home and went to Apehanger’s on Route 301 in Charles County.
By this time, even by the state’s own admission, the victim had ingested two Xanax, one Zoloft and had already consumed “three or four beers.”
The woman continued to drink at the bar and encountered Lancaster, who said he knew her daughter.
When she woke next morning, he was the only person she remembered from the night before.
The question before the jury was whether the defendant was the same person who sodomized her in the parking lot after the two left the bar.
During video shown during the trial, the victim is seen interacting with Lancaster at the bar, and at one time she gets knocked down when the defendant confronted a patron for groping her breasts.
But she was also seen flirting with various men throughout the evening, and at one point climbed up on the bar and began dancing, which included exposing her breasts and panties more than once.
Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah Freeman showed the video when the couple left the bar for good.
“That is the last time they left the bar,” Freeman said. “They left together.”
In the phone conversation police tape recorded between the defendant and victim a few days later, Lancaster told the woman he didn’t know why she was telling the police he had intercourse with her, saying, “nothing of that sort happened.”
All the woman could remember was being hit on the head, her face colliding with a car windshield, gravel grating against her breasts and intense pain in her anus, Freeman said.
Charles County Assistant Public Defender Michele Harewood said the state’s own evidence could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that her client committed that act.
“He told her, flat out, ‘I didn’t have sex with you,’ ” she said. “It’s a consistent denial. He didn’t lie. He didn’t need to. Where is the semen?” she asked. “It should be somewhere. It should be all over the place.”
The jury, after just under six hours of deliberation, agreed.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com