Lawyer accused of sex with teen acquitted on all charges, California jury decides
Lawyer Jennifer Walters, who prosecutors allege had a four-year sexual relationship with a minor, was acquitted Wednesday by a Fresno County jury of 15 counts of sex crimes involving a teenager.
The 42-year-old Walters, a divorced mother of two, began to sob as the court clerk read the jury’s verdict. The defendant would have faced up 24 years in prison if she was found guilty.
Family members of the teenager became emotionally upset after the clerk finished reading the not guilty verdict. “How did you not see it?” shouted the teenager’s mother, as she was led out of the courtroom.
During her trial, Walters and her lawyer Mark Broughton were able to convince the jury that the teenager concocted the whole story of having a relationship with Walters, a woman 22 years older than him.
Broughton suggested the teenager made up the illicit relationship after he forcibly raped and sodomized Walters in July 2019.
And the jury agreed. They did not appear to be swayed by the teenager’s testimony and the thousands of instant messages between Walters and the teenager, who was a friend of her sons.
The instant messages, some that were sexually explicit, included emojis of hearts, hugs and even a bitmoji that she created of herself and the teenager.
The teenager testified that one of his first sexual experiences happened with Walters when he was just 13 years old.
This story will be updated.
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Lawyer accused of sex with teen acquitted on all charges, California jury decides."
