UW-Madison student Nicholas Ralston uses picture from his sexual assault trial on Tinder

The picture was taken on Wednesday, and the photographer saw it on his profile yesterday.

Last week former UW-Madison student Nicholas Ralston was found not guilty on felony charges of sexual assault.

Ralston was expelled from UW-Madison in 2015, after the victim reported he initiated non-consensual oral sex with her while she was sleeping on the futon with her boyfriend in his dorm room.

He texted his friends the following day saying: “Just so all of you know I sexually assaulted [the victim] last night and will be living in Tripp for the rest of the year.”

Ralston was acquitted after the defense claimed he only admitted to the assault because the victim convinced him it happened.

The defense also mentioned a lack of physical evidence, and the possibility that the victim thought Ralston was her boyfriend because she was drunk and couldn’t “coherently piece together” the evening.

Daily Cardinal City News Editor, Gina Heeb, took a photo of Ralston during his trial. Yesterday she discovered he was using the picture she took on his Tinder profile.

Heeb told us: “The Daily Cardinal verified that this is his Tinder account. The trial outcome received a lot of backlash last week, so it’s not surprising the news isn’t sitting well with the public.”

Picture: Gina Heeb / The Daily Cardinal

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