In November 2023, John Marks and his friend Freddie Douglas Jr. were accused of raping Amanda Zawieruszynski, a white woman, while she was in the pool at Marks’ home in Manvel, Texas.
Zawieruszynski claimed in a police report that she was initially at Marks’ house because he was hosting a party. She claimed that she was held against her will by both men and raped at night for hours headed into the morning. A month later, they were arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault. However, after the evidence was presented to a jury by the local district attorney, they declined to indict both of them in March 2024.
Now months after they were arrested, Marks is looking to get some get back, filing a lawsuit against Zawieruszynski, the City of Manvel, the Manvel Police Department, Police Chief Keith Traylor, and the two officers involved in the case.
In the complaint, Marks and his attorneys claim that Manvel police arrested him and Douglas Jr. without investigating Zawieruszynski’s claims to the fullest extent because of their race. He also adds that they ignored surveillance video from his home that would’ve immediately shown that Zawieruszynski’s allegations were false.
Allegedly, the footage showed that Zawieruszynski got undressed and joined both men in Marks’ pool on her own and engaged in consensual sexual acts. It also reportedly shows Zawieruszynski walking around the house freely, which goes against the claim that she was held against her will.
According to the lawsuit, Manvel Police Chief Traylor was aware of the surveillance footage, but he did not include it in his report to the judge who ended up signing off on an arrest warrant. Another officer, Taner Truitt, allegedly made false statements that would have led to an arrest warrant not being issued
In a statement to ABC13, Justin Moore, Marks’ attorney, said, “What happened to my client shouldn’t happen to anybody in this country, not in the year 2024. This is something that goes back to the Jim Crow days. When you hear the details, you start to think about cases like Emmett Till. There is a historical element here. It is a context of Black men being falsely accused of sexual assault against white women.”
While Marks’ main reason for filing the lawsuit was to deter racial discrimination in the future, he added that he is dealing with psychological trauma and that the sexual assault investigation affected his reputation and ability to get jobs in the future. He is seeking compensation for damages, including attorney’s fees, medical expenses, and lost earning capacity, according to the lawsuit.
He told ABC13, “I don’t want anybody else to go through this. I was fortunate enough to be in a position to have cameras and people I could reach out to. If not, I would’ve been a gone brother. I would’ve been gone for something I didn’t do.”