Law enforcement officials in Florida will not charge former state Republican Party chairman Christian Ziegler with rape after conducting a months-long investigation.
Florida Republicans stripped Ziegler of his authority and reduced his salary to $1 last month after he refused to resign following accusations that he raped a woman last October. In an emergency vote earlier this month, they voted 199-3 to oust him, which comes after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other top Florida Republican officials had called on him to resign.
The Sarasota Police Department said that after an extensive investigation, they concluded that the sexual encounter “was likely consensual.”
“Therefore, detectives were unable to develop probable cause to charge Ziegler with Sexual Battery,” police said on Friday.
However, police said that they are seeking a felony charge for Video Voyeurism against Ziegler “after conducting an additional follow-up interview with the victim and after showing the victim the video recording of the sex act” in which the victim “advised Sarasota Police detectives that she was unaware and did not consent to being video recorded.”
Police said that they prepared a probable cause affidavit for Video Voyeurism and forwarded it to the State Attorney’s Office for further review. Police said that Ziegler has cooperated with law enforcement throughout the investigation.
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Ziegler attorney Derek Byrd said in a statement that “since day one, we have been confident Mr. Ziegler would be exonerated from these baseless allegations.”
“He has been completely honest, forthright, and has been fully cooperative with law enforcement at every stage of this investigation,” Byrd said. “While we are disappointed that the Sarasota Police Department ‘punted’ the decision on the remaining portion of the case to the State Attorney’s office, we strongly believe that the State Attorney will not prosecute Mr. Ziegler for any crime.”