MESERVEY — A Meservey man has been found not guilty in a Hancock County sexual abuse case. 38-year-old Matthew Koehler was charged with third-degree sexual abuse two years ago.
A criminal complaint stated that Koehler, while being a designated caretaker for a dependent adult, engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with the female on September 9th of 2023 in a rural Meservey residence. The complaint says the female thought she should tell somebody about the incident, but that she did not think anybody did anything wrong because she consented to the encounter with Koehler several times and they were both adults.
Koehler waived his right to a trial by jury with a non-jury trial being held in April.
District Judge Chris Foy issued his ruling on Tuesday during a hearing in Hancock County District Court, stating that there was no evidence presented in the case to clearly and definitively show that the female was incapable of giving consent to a sexual relationship or lacked the mental capacity to know the right and wrong of conduct in sexual matters.
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