“Here are some additional facts that the jury might have found important about the video. Cleaves argued that he pulled the victim back into the room not to have sex with her but to get her to put on clothes before leaving, as opposed to wandering around outside of a motel, in Flint, intoxicated and naked, at 2:00 in the morning. Indeed, the video -- not the clip shown here that was shortened and edited for maximum dramatic effect, but the full video presented to the jury -- showed that the victim left the room not twice but three times, the third immediately after the second. The third time, the victim was fully clothed; once she's no longer naked in public, Cleaves doesn't attempt to pull her back to the room. Testimony from the victim herself along with other witnesses and evidence presented at trial corroborated Cleaves' non-criminal explanation of the events seen in the video.
Most importantly, credibility concerns played a critical role in this case, and you are not privy to the myriad credibility issues the jury was exposed to. The victim has at various times claimed that she was kidnapped early on in the evening, held against her will, and raped. This version of events did not mesh well with evidence showing that, among other things, the victim invited Cleaves out for the night, not the other way around (text message exhibits), and that the victim initiated the sexual encounter with Cleaves, not the other way around (the victim's own testimony). Video tape footage showed the victim arriving at the motel, doing her makeup in the mirror in the car, and entering the motel on her own. The victim testified that once in the motel room she voluntarily began kissing Cleaves. She testified that she voluntarily took her own clothes off. She testified that she voluntarily initiated intercourse with Cleaves. She testified that she did not at any point in time indicate 'no' to Cleaves about sexual intercourse. After the incident, she testified that she told other witnesses, including the police, that no sexual assault had occurred. This is just a summary of a tiny fraction of the evidence presented at trial."
