Amory Waters Dismissal and press release..

After more than a year of agony, a Fond du Lac family whose son was accused of rape is ready to heal. "It's been extremely traumatic," said Renee Waters, mother of 22-year-old Amory Waters, who was accused of rape 13 months ago in Dane County. "I don't wish this on anyone." In September 2014, Waters was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in an alley on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in the early morning hours of Aug. 22, 2014. He told police he had been playing a drinking game that night at the Kollege Klub on North Lake Street and didn't remember anything after that, according to the criminal complaint. He was charged in Dane County with felony second-degree sexual assault. The woman told police she was raped by a stranger, even though the man knew her name and told her, "It's OK, (victim's name), I know you." Traffic camera video showed the woman leaving Wando's on University Avenue around the same time Waters was seen walking on North Lake Street. The video shows the woman was near Waters at the time he crossed University Avenue. The case hinged on identifying Waters and the accuser in the grainy video clip that was less than three seconds long, said Assistant District Attorney Corey C. Stephan at the Oct. 8 hearing in Dane County, where the case was dismissed. Also, two DNA samples found on the woman's clothes did not match Waters' DNA, Stephan said, and a statement Waters made characterized as an admission of guilt was later determined to be an admission of not knowing what happened during a night of drinking. Stephan said he could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, according to court documents. "I think if I try this case five out of five times, I think I would lose it five out of five times and would be, frankly, surprised if I even won it once," Stephan said. Though the woman appears to have been sexually assaulted, Stephan said, the evidence did not point to Waters as the perpetrator. Stephan is satisfied with the investigation. "I think it's fair to say that no stone was left unturned in the investigation." Meanwhile, the Waters family is struggling to pick up the pieces. Renee Waters said the price of innocence has been steep. "Because of this experience, I have changed my total world view of our justice system," she said. "(The case) caused great distress to the innocent parties, his family and friends, not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees." Reach Justin Kabbes at 920-907-7925 or at jkabbes@gannett.com.