The ousted chairman of the Florida Republican Party has not been charged with sexual assault

The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, who was ousted earlier this month during a criminal investigation, will not be charged with sexual assault, Sarasota police said Friday. But authorities will try to charge him with video voyeurism, a misdemeanor.

Christian Ziegler, the ousted chairman, recorded a sexual encounter he had in October with a woman who later accused him of assault. The recording took place without her knowledge or consent, police said in a statement. Agents prepared an affidavit on the video voyeurism charge and sent it to prosecutors on Friday.

They did not pursue a more serious sex charge because the video obtained by police “demonstrated that the encounter was likely consensual,” the statement said.

The woman, whose name has been redacted from public records, told police that she had had a consensual sexual encounter with Mr. Ziegler and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, more than a year ago, but that she had refused to have sex with the Mr. Ziegler on October 2 after realizing his wife would not be joining them.

Mr. Ziegler, 40, then went to her apartment uninvited, told the woman the police, and sexually assaulted her. He told police that the encounter was consensual and that he had filmed it. The criminal investigation was first reported by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which describes itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization.

“Since Day 1, we have been confident that Mr. Ziegler would be exonerated of these baseless charges,” his attorney Derek Byrd said in a statement Friday.

The investigation into Mr. Ziegler became public in November and roiled the Republican Party, as leaders from Governor Ron DeSantis to county-level chairmen called on him to resign. He refused and was eventually removed at a special party meeting this month.

His wife, an elected member of the Sarasota County School Board, herself faced continued calls to resign during a board meeting this week – because of the perceived hypocrisy between her private and public lives. Ms. Ziegler, 41, is a conservative activist who has promoted anti-LGBTQ policies in schools and co-founded the right-wing group Moms for Liberty.

“At the outset of the investigation, we asked and cautioned the public to reserve judgment on criminal misconduct until a thorough investigation of the facts had been completed,” Mr. Byrd said. “Unfortunately, many people and media outlets refused to extend that courtesy to Mr. Ziegler. “That was unfair and unfortunate and has caused irreparable damage to Mr. Ziegler's reputation, his personal life, his professional life and his family.”

Mr. Byrd said he was disappointed that police had “punted” the video voyeurism charge by referring it to prosecutors. “We are confident that the prosecutor will not prosecute Mr. Ziegler for any crime,” he said.

Since police began their investigation on Oct. 4, officers have conducted nearly a dozen interviews, issued “numerous” subpoenas, reviewed surveillance footage and searched “a substantial number” of images and videos on cellphones and cloud data backups, police said .