School Board member Julius Melendez found not guilty of battery
A jury of four men and four women found Osceola County School Board member Julius Melendez not guilty of battery Tuesday in a case brought by a then 18-year-old woman who accused him of making unwanted romantic advances, and then kissing her after she asked him not to.
The misdemeanor trial, the definition of a “he said, she said,” case, centered around how Isabella LeBlanc, 19, a former barista at downtown Kissimmee’s Susana’s Café Melendez used to co-manage, accused him of pouring her mimosas at the café after hours. She said they continued the drinking after they went to his house, where she said the unwanted kiss took place.
