A political commentator and former University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown student took the stand Wednesday to testify in his own trial where he is accused of raping a woman inside a campus dorm room in 2013.
Cliff Maloney Jr., now age 31, is a resident of Missouri and works in politics as a campaign employee for the Republican party.
He is also the former president of the Young Americans for Liberty organization but was removed in January of 2021 following sexual misconduct allegations, according to a Fox News report at the time.
Last April, Maloney was arrested and charged following an investigation into an alleged sexual assault that reportedly occurred at UPJ while he was enrolled there.
Police say the alleged victim, who testified in court earlier this week, accused Maloney of drugging and raping her in September of 2013.
The alleged victim told investigators that Maloney had reportedly invited her back to his dorm while the two were attending a fraternity party.
She claimed that Maloney had offered her a drink and that after consuming it, she “began feeling weird.”
Police allege that Maloney then began assaulting the woman while she was unconscious.
During Wednesday’s testimony, two of the woman’s friends testified to what she had reportedly told them about the night of the alleged assault and what she reportedly remembered.
One of the friends told the jury that the alleged victim claimed that she only remembered “bits and pieces” of the night in question.
The defense then called several of Maloney’s friends and college acquaintances to the stand, who testified that he “has a good reputation as a law-abiding citizen.”
Maloney himself then took the stand and testified to the night of the alleged assault, as well as to when he found out that he was being charged.
He told the jury that when he found out about the allegations, it was “the worst day of his life.”
Maloney testified that he received a call from a detective who began asking him about his time at UPJ and his relationship to the alleged victim.
He told the jury that he had to “Google” the woman and stated that she “looked familiar.”
“I never interacted with her more than four times in my entire life,” Maloney stated.
As for the night in question, Maloney claimed that the woman initiated their interaction and suggested going back to his dorm room.
Maloney claimed that the two sat on the bed and played a card game and that after returning from the bathroom, he reportedly found the woman asleep in his bed.
He also told the jury that the two did not engage in any sexual activity and that the woman was reportedly gone by the time he woke up the next morning.
Maloney noted that he then messaged the woman on Facebook a few weeks later because he “thought she was cute.”
He claimed that she was “angry” with him about the messages and that she was “confusing the situation.”
“Maybe this did happen to her but it was with someone else,”
Both the Commonwealth and the defense have rested their cases.
During closing arguments. the defense claimed that the detectives did not ask Maloney for “his side of the story.”
The defense also argued that there were “inconsistencies” with the alleged victim’s timeline of events and argued about her “delay” in reporting the alleged assault.
The Commonwealth then discussed the alleged Facebook messages between the woman and Maloney, claiming that she was “calling him out and mad at him” for the alleged assault.
The prosecution also argued that the woman’s story was consistent, despite the gap in time from when the alleged assault occurred to when she reported it.
The jury is set to begin deliberating soon.
