Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Managing Director Jason Lee was found not guilty of raping a 20-year-old Irish student in 2013 at his beach house in New York’s Hamptons.

Lee, 38, of Manhattan, was acquitted following a trial on eastern Long Island, just a few miles from the East Hampton luxury rental where the incident occurred. The woman alleged that Lee raped her in the bathroom on the night of his 37th birthday, after meeting her at a now-closed nightclub in nearby Wainscott. Lee, who elected to be tried by a judge instead of a jury, said the encounter was consensual.

“This was a false accusation,” Lee’s attorney Edward Burke Jr. told reporters after the verdict. “We are deeply troubled that the matter went this far. The evidence was clear from day one and it took the judge less than 24 hours to dismiss all the charges.”

New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kahn, who presided over the trial, said on Wednesday that she wasn’t required to give reasons for her decision and wouldn’t do so.

The rape charge carried a sentence of as long as 25 years in prison. Kahn also found Lee not guilty of assault and not guilty of sexual misconduct.

The alleged victim said during the trial that she was nearing the end of a summer stint at a yogurt stand in South Carolina while on a work visa when she traveled to Long Island. She said she went with friends to visit her brother and “see the big city that everyone talks about.”

Adult Liaison

The woman’s brother may have been upset that she ended up having a “very adult liaison” with an older man of Asian descent and that led to the rape charges, Lee’s lawyer Andrew Lankler told the judge in his closing argument Tuesday.

Kahn noted in handing down the verdict that the “court was deprived” of an opportunity to hear from the woman’s brother.

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