CLEVELAND — An attorney is vowing an appeal for a woman found liable by a civil jury for malicious prosecution in a rape allegation she made against a former
The accusation against Conley came shortly before the 2017 NFL draft, in which he had been projected to be a high first-round pick. The 23-year-old woman alleged that he had sexually assaulted her in a Cleveland hotel room. Conley’s attorney said the sex was consensual.
A grand jury in Cleveland declined to indict Conley on any of the possible charges, according to the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office, and he signed a four-year contract with the Oakland Raiders, who chose him with the 24th overall pick.
The woman filed a lawsuit a year later, accusing him of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Conley sued her in a counterclaim, accusing her of malicious prosecution.
Cleveland.com reports that jurors sided with Conley earlier this month after a 10-day trial in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, finding that the woman had failed to show that he had assaulted her. Jurors ordered her to pay him attorneys fees and $300, the sum Conley had asked for, saying the case wasn’t about money but about restoring his reputation.
Conley, a free agent rehabbing from a 2020 injury, said in a statement on social media Monday that “after 5 1/2 long years” he was “grateful and relieved to finally be fully exonerated.”
