Black Men Who Beat Rape Charges with Bombshell Video Return to Texas Court After White Neighbor They’re Suing for False Claim Sees Stall Tactic Fail
A federal civil lawsuit stemming from the alleged sexual assault of a white Texas woman in a swimming pool by two Black men in December 2023 is back on after a judge ruled that the woman’s bankruptcy case should no longer halt proceedings. And home surveillance video of the incident the parties have fought over for years may finally be seen in court.
John Marks, a Manvel, Texas businessman, and his friend Freddie Douglas, then an El Campo police detective, are suing Amanda Zawieruszynski for slander, libel and defamation after she claimed they kidnapped and raped her during a late-night hangout at Marks’ home. They are also suing the City of Manvel, its police chief and two of its officers for wrongful arrest and civil rights violations.
The two men were arrested on Dec. 7, 2023 after Zawieruszynski told Manvel Police that what began as a casual and fun evening of drinking and swimming in the pool of her neighbor Marks, with whom she’d maintained an intimate relationship for several months, turned violent when the men yanked off her bathing suit, held her against her will and sexually assaulted her as she struggled to get away.
Woman in Video Countersues
In her countersuit, the woman said the sexual assault on Nov. 9, 2023, went on all night, moving from the pool to inside the house, and was so forceful that it caused months of vaginal bleeding, required surgical intervention, and that she has permanent physical scarring from it.
Zawieruszynski is suing Marks and Douglas for aggravated sexual assault, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Both men were arrested for felony aggravated sexual assault on the strength of her report, while investigating officers failed to interview them to get their side of the story, according to their amended joint complaint filed on March 13.
They said Manvel police also declined to review surveillance video from Marks’ home, which they insisted would clearly show that Zawieruszynski appeared to be relaxed and enjoying herself and that all the sex among the three adults in the pool was consensual.
Even after viewing the exculpatory video, the plaintiffs said, the Manvel Police Department persisted in pursuing the charges. In March 2024, a Brazoria County Grand Jury, after reviewing the evidence presented by the district attorney, including the video, returned a no-bill against the two men, meaning they were not indicted and the charges were dropped.
Fallout from Accusations
The fallout from the arrest was harsh for Douglas, who was fired by the El Campo Police Department and stripped of his Texas peace officer license after a 15-year law enforcement career. He had to sell his house at a below-market price to fund his defense.
Local media coverage was intense and “stares and whispers followed him everywhere” in town, from the grocery store, while getting gas, and at stop lights, the lawsuit says. The false allegations caused “irreparable damage” to his personal and professional reputation.
Marks had moved to Manvel in April 2023 and soon became acquainted with Zawieruszynski, his neighbor, who was then separated from her husband, who lived in Hawaii. They developed a close relationship that became intimate, including sleepovers. On the night in question, the two men had attended a Houston Rockets basketball game, and Zawieruszynski joined them around 10 pm, as planned, for drinks and a late-night swim.
Marks claims that his surveillance system, equipped with multiple cameras with audio recording capabilities, captured the entirety of the evening’s events and that the footage “corroborates the consensual nature of the interactions … which starkly contradicts her later claims of being held against her will and assaulted.”
Marks was held in jail on a $300,000 bond, which he was unable to pay immediately, an experience that he says caused him emotional distress and trauma. The media coverage portraying him as a dangerous criminal based on Zawieruszynski’s false allegations, he claims, also damaged his personal and professional reputation, “leading to social ostracism and financial ruin.”
Battle Over Footage
The men seek a jury trial to recover damages for lost earnings, reputational damage, mental anguish, and medical expenses.
Zawieruszynski is claiming damages for physical pain and suffering, mental distress and lost wages and earning capacity.
Her attorneys battled with the plaintiffs’ counsel for more than a year for a copy of the surveillance video, which Douglas and Marks’ attorneys have repeatedly claimed indisputably exonerates their clients.
Douglas’ attorney Michael Kerensky allegedly told Zawieruszynski’s attorney, “as one lawyer to another,” that “once Amanda’s lawyer sees the video, he would immediately drop the case.”
In August 2025, Zawieruszynski filed a motion to compel the plaintiffs to turn the video over, along with other documents, and asked the court to issue financial sanctions against their attorneys for repeated delays and omissions.
Two weeks later, the parties informed U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Edison that they had resolved their discovery dispute and began filing lists of expert witnesses expected to testify at trial.
The case was suspended on May 18 after Zawieruszynski declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy, pending the conclusion of her case. She reported between $1 million and $10 million in assets and between $500,000 and $1 million in debts, including attorney’s fees, medical bills, credit card bills and student loans.
On June 16, the stay was lifted after she filed a creditor repayment plan with the bankruptcy court, which also approved her debtor’s application to employ her attorney, Robert E. Booth, for her defense as well as her counterclaim in the civil case, at a flat fee of $25,000.
According to the docket in her federal civil case, discovery concluded in May, and all parties have until July 17 to file any motions seeking to dispose of the case before it proceeds to trial. A trial date has not yet been set.