A woman who was charged with kidnapping and attempted theft in 2008 was acquitted by a jury in King County Superior Court.

Kulany Roeksbutr, 32, was cleared of all charges following a five-day trial before King County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell in December 2009.

Roeksbutr and a friend, Sunjinda Yahatta, were charged after Yahatta married a 78-year-old man who was in an Issaquah nursing home suffering from dementia. The charges alleged that Yahatta married the man so she could drain his bank account, and that Roeksbutr acted as a witness at the wedding and was involved in the alleged scheme.

The women took the man to the bank after the marriage and tried to withdraw $23,000, according to charging documents. A suspicious teller called police.

Yahatta, 58, told officers she married the man because she had grown fond of him after being hired as a masseuse to provide physical therapy after he had suffered a stroke. She told police she was worried that an individual who had power-of-attorney over the elderly man was going to spend the man's money on himself.

Both women were acquitted of all charges after defense attorneys argued that the state had failed to prove the elderly man was incapacitated at the time of the wedding.

The Seattle Times covered the filing of charges and early court proceedings in the case, but did not report on the verdict at the time.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com