Crime & Safety

Christian Ziegler Recorded Sexual Encounter With Rape Accuser: Report

Police recovered a cell phone video that FL GOP Chair Christian Ziegler took of his sexual encounter with his rape accuser, a report said.

Sarasota police recovered a cell phone video that FL GOP Chair Christian Ziegler took of his Oct. 2 sexual encounter with his rape accuser, a report said.
Sarasota police recovered a cell phone video that FL GOP Chair Christian Ziegler took of his Oct. 2 sexual encounter with his rape accuser, a report said. (AP Photo/Tamara Lush)

SARASOTA, FL — Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler recorded his Oct. 2 sexual encounter with his rape accuser, which police were recently able to recover, according to a report from the Florida Center for Government Accountability.

Sarasota police would not confirm the existence of the video to Patch because of the ongoing investigation.

The victim, a woman, told police she had a previous three-way sexual encounter with both Christian and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota County school board member and Moms for Liberty co-founder. Bridget confirmed this encounter, which happened about a year ago, to investigators.

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The woman told investigators that she initially agreed to have Christian Ziegler at her home the day of the incident because she thought his wife would join them, according to a search warrant shared by FCGA.

She canceled on Christian when she learned that Bridget Ziegler wouldn’t be there, messaging him, “Sorry I was in mostly for her.”

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The victim said that Christian Ziegler showed up at her house anyway, entered her home and had sex with her without a condom. The woman later told a relative she was raped.

Christian Ziegler has maintained his innocence and said their sexual encounter that day was consensual.

On Nov. 2, he told investigators that he took a cell phone video of his encounter with his accuser, but initially said he deleted it. Police learned that after the allegation was made against him, he uploaded the video to his Google Drive, but they were unable to find it during an initial digital extraction, according to the search warrant.

Sources told the FCGA that law enforcement was eventually able to recover the video.

Ziegler’s brief video shows them in her apartment while she was bent over a piece of furniture in the bedroom, according to the report.

Surveillance video footage from the building also shows him arriving at her apartment, knocking on her door and walking inside. He and the woman are later seen leaving the apartment together, the report said.

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