SATELLITE BEACH, Fla. – A Brevard County jury acquitted a man Tuesday on charges connected to a sexual assault of a woman in Satellite Beach in 2017.
After an eight-day trial, the State Attorney’s office said Harry Page, 41, was acquitted on charges of sexual battery with great bodily harm, burglary of a conveyance with battery, aggravated battery, robbery and false Imprisonment. The jury deliberated for an hour and a half before coming to a verdict. The office said they did convict him of one count of battery.
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Police said in February of 2017, the woman was reading a book in her car at Hightower Beach when Page pulled her out of her car, pinned her down and beat her and then sexually assaulted her.
Page claimed the sex was consensual.
Investigators said DNA from a towel found at the scene matched Page’s. His DNA was on file from a sexual battery conviction in Polk County in 2000.
In a statement, the state attorney’s office said, “We can’t begin to understand this, we thought we made a very strong case. Ultimately we respect the decision of the jury.”
Page will now be transferred back to Polk County Jail, where he is facing a failure to register as a sexual predator charge following his 2000 conviction.