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A sexual assault charge against a Downtown restaurateur will be dismissed at the request of the alleged victim, a Dane County prosecutor said Wednesday.

The woman accused Mohamed Barketallah, 41, of Madison, of assaulting her after she passed out at his apartment last year. But on Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Moeser filed a motion to dismiss the charge.

Moeser said the woman was the victim of a similar crime in another state, and had recently testified in that case. The defendant in that case, Moeser said, ended up pleading guilty. That experience took a toll on her, he said.

“If she can’t go through with another trial, we have to respect that,” Moeser said.

“Mo is obviously relieved and vindicated,” said Barketallah’s lawyer, Jessa Nicholson. “He has absolutely maintained his innocence.”

Last month, Nicholson filed a motion asking to admit prior false allegations of sexual assault made by the woman ﻿in 2013, involving a different case than the one in which she testified. The motion was never decided.

Barketallah was scheduled to stand trial next month.