It came down to who the jury believed more.
Late Friday afternoon a Minnehaha County jury sided with former adult store owner David Eliason and cleared him of all accusations.
Eliason had been on trial all week after three former cashiers filed a lawsuit over allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
"Cleared of all allegations by all twelve jurors, but you know what nobody is a winner here today. It's been a very stressful week for everyone, including my wife, my daughter, my family, my friends. Their prayers and support have been phenomenal," Eliason said after the verdict was read.
Eliason has denied the sexual assault and harassment accusations since they were first brought in late 2007. He never faced any criminal charges even though the women told their stories to police.
Acting as his own attorney, he denied the allegations again this week in front of a jury of nine men and three women. So what does he think his most convincing argument was?
"That I didn't do it. The allegations were false and the jury recognized that," Eliason said.
The accusers and their attorneys snuck out the back door of the courtroom Friday afternoon without commenting on the jury's verdict.
Eliason says even though the jury has decided the case in his favor it hasn't been easy to listen to the stories told in the courtroom over the past four days.
"It was very difficult to hear people say extremely heinous things of you and to effectively have to defend yourself against those claims with no trial experience, no law school. It was very stressful," Eliason said.
But Eliason says he feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders and that justice has been done.
The jury also cleared Annabelle's and Olivia's adult stores of any negligence in this case. Their attorney didn't have much to say after court other than, ‘The jury has spoken.’
Eliason no longer owns Annabelle's and Olivia's because of the allegations and he says he has no plans to get back into the businesses.
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