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"BRIDGEPORT - For the second time in 10 years, a local man has been found not guilty of rape. A six-member Superior Court jury, after deliberating for one hour Friday, found Valentine Morgan, 37, not guilty of first-degree sexual assault and third-degree sexual assault. \"I want to thank the jury for its time. We feel it reached the appropriate verdict,\" Morgan's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender James Pastore, said later. Morgan declined comment. Morgan had been arrested in November 2014 and charged with raping a local woman in his Stratford Avenue apartment on Oct. 4, 2014. The woman testified she had been smoking marijuana and watching television with Morgan when he sexually assaulted her, according to Pastore. \"My client testified the woman became upset when he got a telephone call and left the apartment. He said he didn't have any sexual contact with her,\" Pastore said. It was the second time a jury has found Morgan not guilty of rape. In 2006, a jury deliberated an hour and a half before finding him not guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in his home. Morgan had been accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting the girl in August and September 2004."
<https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Jury-clears-man-of-rape-charges-6745389.php>