WEST POINT, N.Y. — A West Point cadet was acquitted Saturday of sexually assaulting a fellow cadet he was dating.

A panel of five Army officers reached a not-guilty verdict in the military trial of Cadet Lukas M. Saul.

The 23-year-old Saul had been charged with violations under the Uniform Code of Military Justice involving inappropriate contact with a cadet without her consent three times in 2012.

Testifying during the three-day court-martial trial, the accuser, now an officer, described three times when she said Saul forced himself on her, both on and off West Point grounds. She said that the first time, in the basement at her parents' home, he would not stop having oral sex with her despite her pleas of, "Stop, Luke! Stop, stop!"

Maj. Jenny Schlack, for the prosecution, described Saul as a Jekyll-and-Hyde type with a darker side he showed behind closed doors.

But defense lawyer Gil Spencer said the pair had consensual sex over the 17 months they dated after meeting during their plebe year.

Spencer said what happened between them was "a typical teenage thing."

Saul, of Ithaca, didn't graduate with his class last year and has been on administrative leave since August.

The accuser is now an Army second lieutenant.

The charges against Saul carried a maximum punishment of dismissal from the Army, forfeiture of pay and confinement for life.

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