ASTORIA — A jury has found an Astoria man not guilty of sexual assault at the end of a four-day trial in Clatsop County Circuit Court.

Moses B. Keithley, 29, was acquitted March 14 of two counts of rape in the first degree and one count of sexual abuse in the second degree.

He had initially been charged in December 2022 after a woman reported that Keithley had raped her in her tent while they were homeless on the streets of Astoria.

Keithley was held in custody at the Clatsop County Jail for over two years awaiting his trial, which was initially set for last September but had to be continued due to concerns over discovery violations.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Thomas Boone described the case as a “he said, she said” situation, given that although DNA testing by Oregon State Police forensic specialists and one outside forensic agency showed evidence of sexual contact, Keithley maintained the contact had been consensual.

“This is not a DNA case,” Boone told the 12-person jury. “Everybody agrees that there was sexual contact. The state is telling you it was nonconsensual, that she was physically helpless, and it was forcible compulsion.”

Prosecutor Scott McCracken said that the first count of rape in the first degree stemmed from the alleged victim telling authorities that the alleged assault took place while she was asleep. He said the second count was due to the alleged victim telling authorities she had been physically forced into sexual contact after waking up.

The prosecutor also said that Keithley had changed his story several times since his first interview with police. He initially claimed no sexual contact had occurred, then later claimed the sexual contact was solely oral before telling authorities that he and the alleged victim had consensual sex.

Keithley later told authorities that he had initially lied because he was “scared.”

“She testified that she had no interest sexually or romantically from the defendant, and she laid ground rules, before she invited him to her tent, that she didn’t expect him to stay over,” McCracken said of the alleged victim.

The defense’s argument rested heavily on a lack of physical evidence, including the fact that the alleged victim did not allow her upper body to be examined by nurses despite agreeing to a sexual assault forensic exam (SAFE) and cervical swabs.

“By not taking off her clothes and showing her body, the SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) can’t make a determination of if she’s bruised or been grabbed,” he said. “This report is so important because it gives you a perspective immediately after the fact that someone’s injured or harmed.

“It’s really sad, but if you physically resist being raped, there’s probably going to be some injuries, especially if the person allegedly raping is a violent felon.”

Keithley has a conviction for burglary in the first degree and assault in the fourth degree from 2019. He was recently charged with assaulting a public safety officer while in custody at the jail.

Boone said that although swabs from Keithley showed the alleged victim’s DNA, the exam that was performed on the alleged victim yielded no results of male DNA, a result he said was “bizarre.” He also pointed to several errors in the evaluation of the exam, which had been initialed in incorrect places by a nurse.

“When someone makes an allegation and the only thing verifying is them thinking that it happened, cops and detectives, DNA experts, SANE nurses, should still go through the process,” Boone said. “They need to go through the entire process and get this right, because one day it’s going to make itself into a courtroom, and twelve people are going to have to make a decision.”

Jurors deliberated for six hours.

Keithley still faces the charge of assaulting a public safety officer.