Lofton Is Acquitted of Sexual Assault by Green Bay Jury

GREEN BAY, Wis. â€”  James Lofton, the newly acquired Raider wide receiver, was acquitted of a charge of second-degree sexual assault Friday by a Brown County Circuit Court jury, clearing the way for him to join the team.

The jury of two women and 10 men, chosen from Janesville, a town on the southern border of the state and sequestered here on a defense motion citing prejudicial pre-trial publicity, deliberated less than two hours.

Lofton, facing imprisonment of up to 10 years and fine of up to $10,000, listened to the verdict almost without changing expression. Moments later, he and his wife, Beverly, embraced.

Lofton, then a member of the Packers, had been charged with forcing a 30-year-old housewife, whom he met in a Green Bay bar Dec. 18, 1986, to perform oral sex on him in an adjoining stairwell. Lofton acknowledged the act but maintained that it was consensual. The complainant testified in court Wednesday but made no other appearance.

Lofton had been named in a previous incident in 1984, involving another Packer player and an exotic dancer in a Milwaukee bar. The district attorney in that case brought no charges.

“I’m very excited,� Lofton said. “I felt I was not guilty the whole time.

“Obviously, I would have liked to have ended my career here in Green Bay differently, but under the circumstances, I can accept the way that Judge Parins (Roberts Parins, Packer president) acted. He felt he had to make a stand. It’s unfortunate he made the wrong stand.

“I think we all learned lessons and it doesn’t have to be because of my behavior. But we learn lessons every day and that’s why we live.

“It’s just unfortunate that charges had to be pressed and the press had to react.

“In my heart, I’ve forgiven her (the woman who brought the complaint) but I’m still enraged.�

Beverly Lofton, pregnant with the couple’s second child, attended all sessions of the trial and faced reporters afterward alongside her husband. Asked what she’d like to do now, she said:

“Just to start over, just to start over.

“It’s difficult when you have to deal with your marriage in your own house but when you have to deal with it with the whole nation making judgments about what you should do, about the man you married. . . . A lot of people can’t understand why I’m here. As I said, I married James for life. And that was for better and worse.

“I reaped a lot of benefits from being married to a man of his prominence. And at the same time, I have to come through this with him because he’s having to deal with it because of who he is, in some way. So I go right along with him.

“It would be silly for me to stand here and say it wasn’t painful to have to listen to all these things, the mistakes and the bad judgments that were made. But I also know that I’m not perfect. And I hope if I make bad mistakes in the marriage, my husband will forgive me.

“I’m a Christian. I’m obedient as a Christian in my forgiveness. I could have chosen to do a lot of things with that. It didn’t mean I had to stay here and do this or that. A lot of people have wondered why I did such things.

“I’m disappointed there were some bad judgments made on James’ part. I don’t know why things happened the way they did. I’ve made some bad judgments in my day and I’m sure I’ll make some in the future. Hopefully, they won’t be as costly and as painful. We have a family to think about and we have a marriage to think about. We’re just thankful we had a strong enough marriage beforehand to pull through this thing.

“We’re going to be fine. If down the road, you hear this marriage didn’t work, it wouldn’t be because of this incident, I can guarantee you that.�

Lofton, an eight-time Pro Bowl player who is generally considered one of the game’s great receivers, was suspended from the Packers’ last game. They subsequently traded him to the Raiders for two No. 3 draft choices. If Lofton had been found guilty and jailed, the deal would have been cancelled.

In El Segundo, the Raiders issued a statement:

“We’re very happy for James. We were not surprised by the decision. We hope he can join us as soon as possible and help our team win some football games.�