AUBURN – A Lewiston man accused of raping two people was released from jail after a jury acquitted him on one charge and the state dismissed the other on grounds of insufficient evidence.

Adam Quimby, 28, was indicted in December on two counts of gross sexual assault after two acquaintances – a man and a woman – accused him of having anal intercourse with them when they were too drunk to resist him.

The case went to trial last week in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

Quimby’s lawyer, Verne Paradie, asked the jurors during his opening statement to consider the credibility of the alleged victims.

“The state has no physical or medical evidence,” he argued. “That is going to require you to watch people and make judgments as to their credibility. They’ve told several different stories. They’ve changed their stories. They’ve added details to their stories.”

The two alleged victims, who now live together in Pennsylvania, claimed that Quimby raped them at his Bartlett Street apartment last May after a night of partying and drinking at the Sportsman Athletic Club in Lewiston.

The woman testified that she was in Quimby’s bed falling in and out of consciousness when he raped her. The man testified that he was passed out on the coach when Quimby did the same thing to him.

Quimby denied having sex with the woman and claimed that the situation with the man was consensual.

“A man’s pride, a man’s innocence, hangs in your hands,” Paradie told the jurors in his closing arguments.

The trial, which lasted two and half days, nearly ended in a mistrial after one of the jurors injured herself and was unable to return Thursday for a second day of deliberations. When the judge spoke with jurors after declaring a mistrial, he learned that they had already reached a verdict on the first count and that they had planned to return to finalize their decision on the second count.

The judge decided to accept their verdict of not guilty on the charge involving the female, and the state eventually decided to drop the other charge.

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com