Man accused of sexual battery avoids trial due to lack of jurors, California officials say

A sexual battery case against a 27-year-old man was dismissed because of a lack of jurors in California, prosecutors said.

A third-party vendor with the Riverside County Superior Court failed to “summon jurors resulting in a sexual battery case being dismissed,” according to a Dec. 14 news release by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

“I do not agree with the court’s decision and I am disappointed that justice was not served,” the victim said in a statement, according to CBS Los Angeles. “He is now a free man in the community who received zero consequences.”

The man is accused of “willfully and unlawfully directly and indirectly touching an intimate part of another person for the purpose of sexual arousal,” on Oct. 6, 2021, according to the complaint.

On Dec. 7, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office announced that they would be moving forward with the misdemeanor sexual battery case, according to the news release. And although there were available courtrooms, there were no available jurors to begin the trial, officials said.

The office postponed the trial for the following day, the release said.

On Dec. 8, there were no courtrooms available so the court dismissed the case, the district attorney said.

Along with the court’s decision to dismiss the case, the court terminated a “court protection order for the victim,” according to the news release.

“The public is owed an explanation for the apparent lack of oversight of a third-party vendor contracted by the courts to summon jurors for this trial and for trials across the county for the entire month of December 2022,” DA Mike Hestrin said in the news release. “This crisis is unacceptable and only adds to the daily toll of cases being dismissed by the courts.”

Riverside is 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 9:52 AM.