A Pennsylvania man, on Thursday in Monroe County court, was found guilty of an attempted sexual assault involving one of his wife’s bridesmaids just two days before their wedding.
Daniel Carney, 30, was found guilty on four charges over the unwanted sexual encounter during his wedding festivities in 2019. The jury, made up of seven men and five women, deliberated for almost ten hours before delivering the verdicts, WNEP reported.
Prosecutors also convicted Carney of aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and simple assault in addition to the attempted sexual assault charge. He was acquitted on a charge of attempted rape.
Carney’s lawyer, Jim Swetz, told reporters that they were disappointed by the outcome of the trial and planned to file an appeal, People Magazine reported.
Jurors argued that Carney sexually assaulted one of the bridesmaids of his wedding party in the men’s locker room at the Shawnee Inn while the victim was too drunk to consent to a sexual encounter following a pre-wedding rafting trip. Carney’s defense, on the other hand, claimed that the bridesmaid, 29, was conscious and knew what she was doing with Carney in the shower.
Testifying in her husband’s defense during the trial, Carney’s wife, Nicole Carney, told the court that when she busted her husband and her bridesmaid in the locker room shower, the woman was “conscious and fully aware.”
Carney took the witness stand on Wednesday and testified in his own defense saying the bridesmaid incited the sexual encounter and followed him into the locker room, where he had gone to take a shower. However, prosecutors argued that he did not take any bathing items with him.
The bridesmaid said she woke up at one point during the encounter and find Carney biting her hand and grabbing her, according to a criminal complaint. She then blacked out again and said she later woke up to discover Carney on top of her and her bikini bottom off.
When Nicole noticed her husband and bridesmaid’s absence, she began searching for them and found them in the locker room shower, according to the complaint. She shouted at Daniel and ran to find her maid of honor.
According to the complaint, Carney called the bridesmaid the following morning to apologize. However, the victim told him she felt extremely violated and upset, according to the complaint. Then on the day of the wedding, Carney sent a text message to the bridesmaid again saying he was sorry and begged her to take an emergency contraceptive pill, according to the document.
Detectives listened to a call between Carney and the victim, during which he denied they had sex, but admitted that his “d—k was out in the shower.”
“We never did do it, but would you consider taking Plan B to make damn certain just in case?” he allegedly told the woman, referring to a popular brand of the morning-after pill. “There is almost no chance, but still.”
In an interview with detectives, Carney first claimed that he was drunk and felt like the victim took advantage of him, but later admitted to grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into the locker room, police said. After the wedding, the victim reported the incident to the police and went to the hospital to be examined by medics, who found 13 bruises all over her body, according to WFMZ.
Carney’s defense claimed the victim’s injuries were due to repeated falls into the water during the incident, but prosecutors said that based on her medical evaluation, her condition was consistent with sexual assault.
Carney is out on a $750,000 bond pending his sentencing on July 26.
