In a trial filled with unusual twists and turns, the most unusual might have been the final result. Circuit Judge Daniel Kellogg on Wednesday ruled that a nurse under contract at the Buchanan County Jail was not guilty of accusations of improper sexual contact with two female detainees.

The trial of Carlos Marte was originally planned to last about two hours, but very nearly filled two days.

It also very nearly ended in a mistrial, because of ongoing arguments between the prosecutor Kate Schaefer and the defense lawyer Joseph Morrey.

The case was tried before Judge Kellogg, instead of a jury. During the proceedings, the judge admonished the pair several times, pointing out that the two lawyers would never have argued directly with each other in a jury trial as they had during the bench trial. Kellogg told them he was angry, and was embarrassed for both of them, ordering them to direct all such comments to him.

During his defense presentation, Morrey called the defendant to the witness stand. Marte repeatedly denied touching the two victims inappropriately, insisting that both had come to him with urgent requests for medical attention, that both said they would prefer not to wait for a female nurse but needed attention right away. He said that based on the women’s complaints, a visual assessment required him to look at their private parts. But he said there was never any inappropriate touching as the women had testified.

The trial also elicited a number of curiosities. There was testimony that inmates medical records were frequently misplaced into the wrong detainee’s file. A lot of the standard documentation was missing, or erroneously compiled. There were questions about who signed some of the documents. There was evidence that one of the victims in the case was allowed to walk unaccompanied from a secure area in the jail to the medical office, a violation of standard procedure. There was conflicting evidence about exactly what the standards were for a male nurse examining a female inmate. The defendant testified that many of the problems that occurred under his watch had been fixed by his supervisor. There were different accounts of precisely what training was offered to Mr. Marte.

The judge referred to much of that in his announcement at the close of evidence. There were no closing arguments. Judge Kellogg said the real issue was one of sexual arousal, and said there was no evidence of that. He granted Morrey’s motion for a directed verdict of acquittal, and ordered the case records sealed, as is standard when a defendant is found not guilty.

Morrey said after the trial that he was gratified his client got his day in court, that the judge reached the same conclusion he had, and came to the right decision. “The system works,” Morrey said.