People v. Haun

581 N.E.2d 864, 221 Ill. App. 3d 164, 163 Ill. Dec. 710, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1895
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 7, 1991
Docket5-90-0064
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 581 N.E.2d 864 (People v. Haun) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Haun, 581 N.E.2d 864, 221 Ill. App. 3d 164, 163 Ill. Dec. 710, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1895 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

JUSTICE HARRISON

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant Melvin Haun was charged by information with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, pars. 12— 14(b)(1), 12 — 16(c)(1).) A jury trial was held November 13 through 15, 1989. After the State rested its case, the court directed a verdict of not guilty as to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault. The jury found defendant guilty on all remaining counts. Defendant was sentenced to concurrent terms of imprisonment of 10 years on one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault and five years each on the two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The court imposed a consecutive 10-year sentence for the remaining count of aggravated criminal sexual assault.

Defendant appeals alleging: (1) the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion in limine and admitting the testimony of Dr. St. Germaine; (2) the trial court erred in refusing to strike the testimony of State witnesses who had discussed defendant’s testimony with the prosecutor prior to testifying in rebuttal; (3) defendant was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; (4) the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a new trial based upon newly discovered evidence; (5) the trial court’s cumulative errors deprived defendant of a fair trial; and (6) the trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentences. We affirm.

S.N., 15, testified regarding instances of sexual contact with defendant, her stepgrandfather, which occurred during the period September through November 1985, and during a period late in 1986. S.N. testified that in the fall of 1985, her family would frequently eat dinner with defendant and his wife at their home in the Makanda area, south of Carbondale, Illinois. S.N. stated that she occasionally accompanied defendant to Arnold’s Market at his request and that after buying groceries, they would sometimes take “a long way home,” driving past the Southern Illinois University (SIU) farms. On two occasions, defendant stopped his vehicle in different areas near the farms and sexually assaulted S.N. Once, defendant pulled his vehicle off the side of the paved road surface onto the gravel shoulder and forced S.N. to touch her lips to his penis. S.N. testified that on another occasion, defendant “pulled off into a road that was paved for just a little bit and then turned into a gravel, like a driveway kind of.” On this occasion, defendant fondled her breasts and vaginal area, touched his tongue to her vagina and placed her hand on his penis. S.N. further testified that in 1987, she directed police officer Pam Burke to the locations where these events had occurred and Burke took photographs. S.N. identified People’s exhibits Nos. 1 through 3 as photographs of Green Ridge Road, the partially paved road which she had testified was the site of one of the sexual assaults in the fall of 1985.

S.N. related another incident during the fall of 1985 when defendant was driving a green van. After going to Arnold’s Market, defendant stopped the van on a small gravel lane off Boskydell Road. Defendant put S.N. against the front seat or on the floor of the van, pulled her pants down and rubbed his penis against her vagina. S.N. identified People’s exhibits Nos. 4, 5 and 6 as pictures of the area near Boskydell Road where defendant had taken her.

S.N. testified that in October 1985 or 1986, she accompanied defendant to his office on the second floor of the SIU School of Technical Careers building so that he could pick up some papers. On this occasion, defendant pushed S.N. onto the floor of his office, partially removed her clothes, fondled her and rubbed his penis against her vagina.

S.N. related three incidents occurring at defendant’s home in the fall of 1986. On one occasion, defendant pushed her to the floor of his bedroom, pulled her pants down, fondled her and rubbed his penis against her. On another occasion, both were nude in defendant’s bedroom. Defendant, wearing a condom, attempted sexual intercourse but, failing to achieve penetration, stopped. Several nights later, S.N. had gone to sleep in the spare bedroom and defendant woke her, put a condom on his penis and penetrated her vagina. These last two incidents occurred in October 1986, while defendant’s wife was in the hospital.

Nancy N., S.N.’s mother, testified that she had been married to Robert Haun, defendant’s son, from 1982 until 1988. Nancy N. separated from Robert Haun on September 21, 1987, after S.N. complained that “Robert had his hands all over her.” Nancy N. confirmed that she, Robert Haun, and her daughters S.N. and C.N. had frequently gone to defendant’s house for dinner and that her daughters often spent the night there. Nancy N. testified that she recalled several occasions during the fall of 1985 through the fall of 1986 when S.N. and defendant went together to the grocery store, to pick up school papers in defendant’s office at SIU or to select or return video tapes. Nancy N. noticed that on several of these occasions S.N. and defendant were gone quite a long time. Nancy N. stated that although her daughters usually wanted to spend the night with defendant and his wife, S.N. had made an objection on more than one occasion when her mother encouraged her to accompany defendant to the store. Although S.N. had once complained to her fifth-grade teacher, sometime in 1984 or 1985, that her stepfather Robert had been touching her, she had never complained about defendant to anyone until she was questioned by police and case workers from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) following the September 1987 incident with her stepfather.

Monica Joost, a member of the Illinois State Police, Division of Criminal Investigation, testified that she interviewed S.N. in November 1987. Officer Joost testified that S.N. related various incidents involving defendant that had occurred in 1985 and 1986, described locations in Jackson County where the incidents had occurred and told Officer Joost how to get to these locations. S.N. described an area near the SIU farms, a gravel road off Boskydell Road, a building on the SIU campus containing defendant’s office, and defendant’s residence. S.N. told Officer Joost that the road near the SIU farms was paved in the beginning and then turned to gravel, and that she had been to that location with defendant approximately five times in as many as three different vehicles. Officer Joost testified that S.N. told her the incident in defendant’s office occurred when she was in the sixth grade, in the fall of 1986. Officer Joost stated that S.N. was somewhat confused regarding the dates of some of the incidents.

Pam Burke, an investigator with the Illinois State Police, testified that she met with S.N. in late December 1987, for the purpose of having her show Ms. Burke some of the locations in Jackson County where the incidents involving defendant had occurred. S.N. directed Ms. Burke to the School of Technical Careers and College of Engineering and Technology Building on the SIU campus, then to another location past the SIU farms on Green Ridge Road. Ms. Burke testified that Green Ridge Road was paved for approximately 75 yards before it turned to gravel and that S.N. directed her to stop at the top of a hill seven-tenths of a mile from the intersection of Green Ridge and Union Hills Road. S.N. then directed Ms. Burke down Boskydell Road to a gravel road just past a small bridge. Ms.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
581 N.E.2d 864, 221 Ill. App. 3d 164, 163 Ill. Dec. 710, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-haun-illappct-1991.