Geske v. Geske

2025 IL App (2d) 240487-U
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided March 6, 2025·No. 2-24-0487·Unpublished

Opinion

No. 2-24-0487

Order filed March 6, 2025

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23(b) and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

SECOND DISTRICT

BENJAMIN GESKE, ) Appeal from the Circuit Court, ) of McHenry County.

Plaintiff-Appellee and )

Cross-Appellant, )

)

v. ) No. 24-OP-859 )

JAMIE DUPAW GESKE, ) Honorable ) Jennifer L. Johnson,

Defendant-Appellant and ) Judge, Presiding.

Cross-Appellee. )

JUSTICE HUTCHINSON delivered the judgment of the court.

Justices McLaren and Birkett concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The trial court did not err in finding Defendant-Appellant abused the minor child by way of intimidation, where she pushed Plaintiff-Appellee and the minor child witnessed the pushing. The trial court did not err in granting Defendant-Appellant parenting time under the plenary order of protection. Affirmed.

¶2 At issue in this appeal is whether the trial court erred when it granted Benjamin’s petition for an order of protection against Jamie, on the basis that she “intimidated” their 14-year-old child, C.G. Appellee, Benjamin filed a cross-appeal, arguing that the trial court erred when it granted Jamie unrestricted parenting time with the minor child, C.G. For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶3 I. BACKGROUND

¶4 On July 25, 2024, Benjamin filed a petition for an emergency order of protection against Jamie, alleging four separate instances of abuse between May 2, 2024, and July 24, 2024. Benjamin alleged that on May 2, 2024, Jamie hit him with a spatula on the right side of the head while screaming at him. She then tried to push Benjamin out the door and threatened to have others come over and harm him. C.G. witnessed this incident. Benjamin alleged that on July 16, 2024, Jamie came into his room, accused him of sleeping with customers, called him a pedophile, and spat in his face. C.G. overheard this incident. Benjamin alleged that on July 22, 2024, Jamie told him that he would never see C.G. again, which C.G. overheard. Benjamin alleged that on July 24, 2024, he returned home to an argument between Jamie and C.G. Jamie screamed at Benjamin, saying that C.G. was “a piece of shit like him” and called Benjamin a “deadbeat dad.” When Benjamin called the police, Jamie would not let him or C.G. leave the house. Once they were able to leave, Jamie sent harassing text messages to Benjamin. In the order of protection, Benjamin also generally alleged that Jamie had two or more guns in her possession, in violation of the pretrial release order entered in case no. 24-DV-122.

¶5 Based on the allegations in the petition, an emergency order of protection entered on July 25, 2024, naming Benjamin and C.G. as protected persons. A hearing on a final protective order was scheduled for August 8, 2024. We summarize the testimony relevant to this appeal and cross- appeal below.

¶6 At the hearing, Benjamin called Jamie as his first witness. She testified as follows. Regarding the May 2, 2024, incident, Jamie asserted her Fifth Amendment right. Regarding the July 16, 2022, incident, she intermittently asserted her Fifth Amendment right. She did testify that at approximately 10:45 PM, Benjamin was in his room, laying down. She accused him of sleeping

with customers, repeating a situation Benjamin had advised her of earlier. Benjamin was reprimanded at work for the situation. To Jamie’s knowledge, C.G. did not overhear this interaction. Jamie did not recall any incident occurring on July 22, 2024. Finally, regarding the July 24, 2024, incident, Jamie denied having an argument with C.G. Rather, she categorized it as an “interaction.” Benjamin entered the room after the interaction had ended, according to Jamie. She denied calling C.G. a “piece of shit” and an “abuser” during the interaction. She also denied calling Benjamin a “deadbeat dad,” a “woman abuser,” and telling him that C.G. was “learning it from him.” She testified that she instead told Benjamin that C.G. was “learning this behavior from your actions.” When Benjamin and C.G. called the police and ultimately left the house, Jamie did not try and stop them from doing so. Nor did she refuse to allow the police to enter the residence or prevent C.G. from speaking with them. Once Benjamin and C.G. had left, she had sent Benjamin a few text messages. When asked if the number of text messages sent was approximately 20, she said she could not recall.

¶7 Benjamin was called as a witness next. He testified as follows. He had been married to Jamie Geske for 17 years and together they have a 14-year-old child, C.G. Regarding the May 2, 2024, incident, Jamie “slapped [him] upside the head” with a spatula while they were both in the kitchen of their shared home. He then called 9-1-1, which made Jamie very angry. She called her mother and put her on speakerphone. Jamie’s mother tried to convince Benjamin not to continue his call with 9-1-1. Jamie was also trying to have Benjamin end the call. Benjamin entered the bathroom in an attempt to get some space. He then left the bathroom to check on C.G. Jamie then tried to push Benjamin out the back door with one hand. Benjamin then proceeded to the front of the house, as he had seen C.G come downstairs. Jamie followed and attempted to shove Benjamin out of the front door with one hand. C.G was sitting in the front room at this point. During the

altercation, Jamie was threatening to call her friends, Matt and Bo, over to the house. Benjamin took this as a physical threat.

¶8 Regarding the July 16, 2024, incident, Benjamin testified that at approximately 10:45 PM, he was lying in his bedroom watching television. Jamie came in, accusing him of sleeping with his customers and threatening to make a complaint to his company. Benjamin asked her to leave and she called him a pedophile. Benjamin then asked for her to get away from him, as she was getting saliva on his face. She then proceeded to spit in his face. C.G. overheard this altercation, as he was in his bedroom across the hall.

¶9 Regarding the July 22, 2024, incident, Benjamin testified that at approximately 9:00 PM, he was lying in his bed with the door to his bedroom locked. Jamie knocked on the door, and told Benjamin that he would never see C.G. again.

¶ 10 Finally, regarding the July 24, 2024, incident, Benjamin testified that at approximately 5:45 PM, Benjamin had returned home from work. He entered through the front door and observed C.G. sitting on the couch in the living room and Jamie standing between the couch and the wall. Jamie was screaming at C.G. when Benjamin entered but started screaming at Benjamin when she noticed he was there. She said C.G. had put his hands on her and that he was a woman abuser like his father. She also called Benjamin a “deadbeat dad” and a “piece of shit.” Benjamin then tried to separate C.G. from Jamie to deescalate the situation. He attempted to leave the house, but Jamie told him that wasn’t allowed. She also pushed the door close when Benjamin attempted to open it to leave. He then called 9-1-1.

¶ 11 The police arrived at the home and Jamie exited through the front door. She did not allow the police to enter the home. Benjamin followed behind her with C.G. Benjamin spoke with the officers for approximately 10-15 minutes and then they left. He then took C.G. to dinner. During

dinner, Jamie texted Benjamin approximately 25-28 times. Her texts were threatening in nature, saying she was going to report Benjamin for kidnapping if he did not bring C.G. home within one hour.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Geske v. Geske, 2025 IL App (2d) 240487-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2025).

2025 IL App (2d) 240487-U (Geske v. Geske) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

People v. Houar
850 N.E.2d 327 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2006)
Glater v. Fabianich
625 N.E.2d 96 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1993)
People v. Roberts
824 N.E.2d 250 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2005)
People v. Alexander
791 N.E.2d 506 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2003)
ALISON C. v. Westcott
798 N.E.2d 813 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2003)
Blum v. Koster
919 N.E.2d 333 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2009)
Frank v. Hawkins
891 N.E.2d 522 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008)
Dew-Becker v. Wu
2020 IL 124472 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2020)
In re Marriage of Potenza
2020 IL App (1st) 192454 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2020)
Indeck Energy Services, Inc. v. DePodesta
2021 IL 125733 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2021)
Maurissa J.B. v. Ingrida K.
2019 IL App (2d) 190107 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2019)