The former owner of She-Nannigans, 415 Water St., was found not guilty Tuesday in Eau Claire County Court of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious female UW-Eau Claire student.

Dominique J. Navarro, 28, formerly of Eau Claire, received the verdict on the almost year-old charge after a jury deliberated for nearly three hours.

Navarro, who had been free on a bond for the past year, faced up to 15 years in prison for the early-morning Sept. 29, 2001, incident at his then-owned Water Street bar, She-Nannigans. He sold the bar in March after almost five years of ownership.

The sexual assault charges he faced stem from a now-20-year-old woman’s accusations that Navarro had sex with her on the dance floor of She-Nannigans after she passed out following bar close, according to the criminal complaint.

Navarro admitted from the initial accusation that he had sex with the woman and, along with other bar employees, wrote on her with marker when she was unconscious. He has maintained that the woman later consented to sexual intercourse on the floor of a carpeted area in the bar.

Navarro testified in the trial’s second and final day that the woman stayed after bar close and talked with him and another bar employee in the basement office. After she passed out on the office couch and the other bar workers left, he said he woke her and they walked upstairs. He said she then started to initiate sexual contact.

The plaintiff’s name is being withheld for privacy reasons.

On Tuesday, Navarro’s attorney Michael Rajek based the woman’s loss of memory about the incident on her having an alcohol-related “blackout,” which is when one is conscious but is so intoxicated that he or she doesn’t retain long-term memory of events.

Rajek said a piece of paper with the woman’s name and phone number on is a “critical and crucial piece of evidence.” The woman didn’t remember writing her number or giving the paper to another She-Nannigans employee the night of the incident.

Rajek, who told the jury he thinks the woman has a “bad drinking problem,” said the piece of paper is an example of the woman blacking out.

“There is a word in the English language called “responsibility,” Rajek told jurors, referring to the woman. “You have to accept responsibility for your own actions.”

Eau Claire District Attorney Richard White used a photo in court showing rug burns the woman suffered on her back during the incident to claim that she was not conscious during sexual intercourse with Navarro. He said, if conscious, she wouldn’t have let herself get that injured.

White told jurors to try to figure why the plaintiff would have sex with a man she barely knew and allow herself to be badly scraped with rug burns.

He said he thinks Navarro took advantage of the woman and that his side of the story is “unbelievable.”

Marking sexual expletives on an unconscious female stranger is no joking matter, he said. She did not wake up during the marking yet Navarro claimed she consented to sex, he said.

“The lady passed out because she was frightfully drunk,” White told the jury.

Navarro next faces a separate trial by jury scheduled for Nov. 7 in Eau Claire County Court for charges that he illegally filled 16 bottles of premium liquor with cheaper versions of that liquor, according to court records. Each charge of refilling the liquor carries a potential penalty of a $150 to $500 fine or between 60 days to six months in prison.

Along with those charges, he also faces two felony counts of bail jumping for violating terms set for the assault allegation.