‘She Is Desperate’: White Texas Woman Rejects Grand Jury’s Decision In Favor of Two Black Men She Falsely Accused Rape, Now Claims Video Evidence That Got Charges Dismissed Was Edited
Nov 04, 2024
The Texas woman who accused two Black men of raping her is now claiming that the video evidence that cleared them of wrongdoing in court was edited.
Amanda Zawieruszynski filed a police report last year against her neighbor John Marks, 40, and his friend Freddie Douglas, Jr., 43, claiming that a three-way, intimate encounter with the pair at Marks’ home in November 2023 turned violent.
John Marks, left, and Amanda Zawieruszynski, right. (Photos: X/Justin A. Moore)
The 40-year-old woman accused both men of forcing her to drink liquor at a housewarming at Marks’ home, then ripping off her bathing suit, and raping her for several hours in Marks’ pool and his house.
Marks and Douglas were arrested last December on felony charges of aggravated rape and kidnapping. Months later, a grand jury dismissed the charges after viewing surveillance video from Marks’ home security system that cleared them of Zawieruszynski’s allegations.
The pair each sued Zawieruszynski and the city of Manvel, Texas, for defamation and civil rights violations, claiming that she and the city pursued “baseless charges” against them, despite video evidence proving that the encounter was fully consensual.
Douglas was fired from his detective job with El Campo Police over the accusations. Marks, a businessman, stated he lost wages, professional opportunities, and social standing.
Zawieruszynski filed a countersuit in response, claiming the footage of the incident had been tampered with to remove damning evidence that would prove her claims were true.
‘”She alleged video footage referenced by the defendants is not footage that Amanda was privy to throughout the investigation,” Zawieruszynski’s attorney Thomas Cammack told DailyMail.com. “Despite documented police reports referencing tampered video evidence, we are aware that the footage was inaccurately presented to the grand jury as original, undoctored footage.”
In Marks’ lawsuit filed on Aug. 21, he states that he and Zawieruszynski began an intimate relationship soon after he moved to Manvel in April 2023. He contested that Zawieruszynski expressed “her eagerness to join” him and Douglas on the night of his housewarming.
That evening, home security cameras caught Zawieruszynski arriving with cupcakes and “entering the home with no signs of distress or hesitation,” looking relaxed and engaging in friendly conversation, according to the complaint.
She later undressed “on her own accord,” and “willingly” joined the men in the pool and “appeared to be enjoying herself … engaging in consensual sexual activity with John Marks and later with Freddie Douglas, with no signs of resistance or discomfort.”
The cameras also showed Zawieruszynski “moving freely throughout the house, with multiple opportunities to leave if she had felt threatened or uncomfortable,” including one point when she was alone inside the home while Marks and Douglas were outside in the pool, the suit states. She “had the opportunity to exit the house but chose to stay.”
Marks contends that after Zawieruszynski filed her police report, officers executed a search warrant at his home and tampered with the settings on his surveillance system by reducing the retention period of the footage with the aim of “destroying exculpatory evidence and obstructing justice.”
Zawieruszysnki pushed back against Marks’ claims, asserting that the pair had engaged in a casual sexual relationship, but broke it off shortly before the housewarming. Still, they remained friendly, she said.
She also claimed in her lawsuit that during the alleged rape, Marks told Douglas he would delete the footage from his surveillance system. She added without going into details in her lawsuit, that both men committed multiple rapes in the past and planned to assault more women in the future.
Douglas’ lawyer Michael Kerensky said Zawieruszysnki’s video doctoring claims are completely false along with her assertion that Marks claimed he would delete video evidence.
“Marks never deleted any of the footage, and even if he did, the district attorney’s office obtained the full, unedited source video from the Ring doorbell company,” Kerensky told DailyMail.com. He added that footage from Ring surveillance systems is backed up with the company’s data and can’t be altered by customers.
In relation to claims that the two men planned to assault other women, Kerensky added that it was ‘a lie… she is desperate, and she is deluded’.
When Zawieruszysnki filed her countersuit to uphold her assault claims, Kerensky told Atlanta Black Star that she continues changing her story to give weight to her allegations.
“Her new narrative and all the others are absolutely contrary to the objective video evidence that proves that her claim of sexual assault and kidnapping was fabricated,” Kerensky said.
Atlanta Black Star has reached out to Marks’ legal team for comment about Zawieruszynki’s most recent claims and is awaiting a response.
‘She Is Desperate’: White Texas Woman Rejects Grand Jury’s Decision In Favor of Two Black Men She Falsely Accused Rape, Now Claims Video Evidence That Got Charges Dismissed Was Edited