In February 2024, four years after K. Neal Roan was accused of a sexual assault, he was acquitted by a jury in Cuyahoga County, Cleveland.
Roan had been convicted in 2019, but the conviction was vacated by an appeals court that ruled the prosecution had been erroneously allowed to present expert testimony through a police detective. The court also held that the verdict was not supported by the evidence.
After his acquittal, Roan filed a lawsuit and was declared to be a wrongly imprisoned individual. The ruling paved the way for an award to him of $740,000 in compensation from the state of Ohio.
On December 15, 2017, Roan had been a resident physician at University Hospitals, in Cleveland, Ohio, when he attended a holiday party. One of the other guests was a co-worker, C.H., a nursing assistant at the hospital. When the party ended in the early morning hours of December 16, C.H. accepted Roan’s invitation to return to his apartment.
They began watching television and “making out” on a couch. The accounts of Roan and C.H. of what happened after that differed dramatically, with Roan asserting they engaged in consensual acts of sex while C.H. said she was raped.
On January 1, 2018, C.H. filed a complaint with the Cleveland Police Department. On May 28, 2018, Roan was charged with four counts of rape.
In May 2019, Roan went to trial in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
C.H. testified that she said she was tired and wanted to go to bed, so she went upstairs, wrapped herself fully clothed in a blanket and fell asleep. She said she woke up in the middle of the night face down and “completely naked.” She said Roan was on top of her penetrating her from behind. As an appeals court later noted, throughout the entire investigation, pre- and post-indictment, and pretrial processes up until C.H. testified at trial, the allegation was that Roan penetrated C.H.’s anus by force or threat of force. C.H. testified at trial, however, that he penetrated her vagina, not her anus.
C.H. testified that after this occurred she went back to sleep and woke up again around 11 a.m. She said she remained in Roan’s bed for two hours until Roan woke up. When Roan woke up, they began kissing and touching. She said he penetrated her vagina with his finger without her consent. She testified that she performed oral sex on him and that she did so against her will. Later, she asked him to drive her home and gave him her phone number.
C.H. texted Roan the next day, asking him if he remembered what happened at his apartment. According to the text messages entered into evidence, Roan replied that they “didn’t do anything.” C.H. responded “that’s only because I woke up. I woke up very early in the [morning] to you trying to have sex.” Roan again replied that “nothing actually happened.”
Roan testified that he thought that when C.H. went upstairs he thought she wanted to continue being intimate, so he took off his clothes and got into bed. They were making out, he said, but when he tried to remove C.H.’s pants, she said, “No, stop,” so he stopped. Roan said they both fell asleep until the following day. He denied that he engaged in sex with her during the night.
At the close of the defense case, the trial judge dismissed the count of rape related to the oral sex.
On May 21, 2019, a jury convicted Roan of three counts of rape. On August 15, 2019, he was sentenced to three years in prison. He surrendered to prison on August 16, 2019.
However, on November 5, 2020, the Eighth Appellate District of the Ohio Court Appeals reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial.
The court ruled that Detective Brian Kellums had been erroneously allowed to give expert testimony, although he had not been qualified in court as an expert or filed an expert opinion prior to the trial, regarding the delay between the incident and C.H.’s report on January 1, 2018. The court agreed with the defense claim that Kellums’s testimony “had the practical effect of improperly bolstering the veracity of C.H.’s allegations by opining that her actions were in line with individuals who were victims of sexual assault.”
In addition, Kellums had testified that in various text exchanges between Roan and C.H. after that night, C.H. had not changed her account, while Roan had never denied any of her allegations. The appeals court held that Kellums had given “improper opinion testimony” by saying that C.H.’s account was consistent, while Roan was not credible.
Two of the three appellate judges also found that the conviction should have been reversed because the manifest weight of the evidence did not support it. In reaching that conclusion, the court cited numerous inconsistencies in C.H.’s testimony and behavior.
“C.H.’s explanation of what occurred in the middle of the night, which was that Roan penetrated or tried to penetrate her anus, but changed to penetration of her vagina during C.H.’s trial testimony, lacks credibility,” the court said. “While C.H. testified that she was asleep, fully clothed and wrapped in a blanket, but awoke ‘completely naked’ to Roan raping her, she also testified that she repeatedly continued to engage in very intimate consensual sexual activity with him.”
Under Ohio law, a reversal due to the manifest weight of the evidence requires that the appellate ruling be unanimous. Appeals Judge Patricia Blackmon dissented, saying, “In my opinion, this is not the exceptional case in which the evidence weighs heavily against the convictions.”
Roan was released from prison on November 9, 2020, pending a retrial.
On February 20, 2024, Roan went to trial a second time. He chose to have the case decided by the trial judge. A new judge had taken over the case. On February 24, the judge acquitted Roan.
On October 22, 2024, Roan filed suit in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas seeking to be declared a “wrongly imprisoned individual.” That designation was granted on June 12, 2025.
Roan then filed a claim for compensation from the state of Ohio. On August 22, 2025, the state agreed to award Roan $740,000 in compensation.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 01-22-2026
Last Update Date: 04-09-2026
