No. A defendant can be held liable in a civil lawsuit even though they were found “not guilty” of the crime. A notable example is O.J. Simpson who was acquitted in the 1994 murder of his wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The families of the victims later brought a wrongful death suit against Simpson. The jury found Simpson liable for $8 million in compensatory damages. The judge later added another $25 million in punitive damages. Simpson was ordered to pay the $33 million in damages even though he had been found not guilty at trial. In fact, the families could have brought suit even if Simpson had never been charged.