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A player for the National Football League, NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles Joshua Sills, has been acquitted of rape and kidnap charges.
The 25 years old Former West Virginia Mountaineers offensive lineman was found not guilty by a jury in Ohio following a five-day trial.
The jury delivered its verdict after deliberating for roughly three hours on Friday.
Prosecutors had alleged that Mr Sills assaulted a woman in his pickup truck in December 2019.
During the day four of the rape and kidnapping trial of Sills which finished Thursday with one final witness called by the prosecution to testify, the lead investigator in the case took the stand in Guernsey County, Ohio for many hours
According to Metro News, the investigator testified that the victim suffered injuries to her ear, lip, and thigh and that they came from Sills inside his truck.
Sills was accused of keeping the victim inside his truck and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. The two were with a group of friends and had gone out to a local bar one night in December 2019 in Sarahsville, Ohio. They came back to a friend’s house at the end of the night.
The defense made a point during the trial Thursday that this was the detective’s first rape and kidnapping case, and believed that his investigation was not thorough.
The defense also argued again that the sex was consensual between Sills and the victim.
Mr Sills had been on the NFL’s exempt since February – less than two weeks before the team appeared in the Super Bowl – preventing him from participating in practices or games and removing him from the roster.
The NFL however issued a statement after the verdict: “We have notified the Eagles that Sills has been removed from the commissioner’s exempt list and is eligible to join the club.”
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the defence attorney Michael Connick said “[Mr Sills will now] be able to build his football career and grow as a person and be successful in all of the things that he chooses to do,”
The Eagles also said he would return to the team’s active roster.
Mr Sills who is an American football offensive guard for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL), originally joined the Eagles as an undrafted free agent.
He was a rookie for the team in 2022, and played in one regular game season this past year.
Photo Credit: William Wotring/The Dominion Post)