The jury rejected Daniel Masarik's defense, which was that eyewitnesses were confusing him with Ryan Lemke, another off-duty officer at the party who pleaded guilty pursuant to a plea agreement shortly before the federal trial began. At the time, both defendants had roughly the same builds, same hair color, and hair styles. Further supporting Daniel Masarik's defense of mistaken identification is the fact that some witnesses did not identify Daniel Masarik as a person involved in the beating of Frank Jude until after the photographs of Daniel Masarik, Andrew Spengler, Jon Bartlett, and Ryan Packard were widely publicized in the media. At that time, Ryan Lemke's photograph was not publicized.