People v. Jennings

626 N.E.2d 265, 254 Ill. App. 3d 14, 193 Ill. Dec. 232, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1939
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 28, 1993
DocketNo. 2—92—0091
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 626 N.E.2d 265 (People v. Jennings) 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. Jennings, 626 N.E.2d 265, 254 Ill. App. 3d 14, 193 Ill. Dec. 232, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1939 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinions

JUSTICE COLWELL

delivered the opinion of the court:

After a jury trial, defendant, Joseph Jennings, was found guilty of aggravated criminal sexual assault (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 12 — 14(b)(1) (now 720 ILCS 5/12-14(b)(1) (West 1992))) and was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. On appeal, defendant raises two issues: (1) whether he was denied a fair trial due to prosecutorial misconduct; and (2) whether the trial court abused its discretion in withholding certain confidential records from defendant.

At the time of the offense, defendant was living with his girlfriend, Sandra, and her three children. An investigator from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Karel Dunlap, went to the home where the couple resided on March 26, 1990, to interview Sandra and the children regarding a complaint that Sandra had been providing alcohol to her children. After interviewing Sandra, Dunlap questioned the youngest child, J.S. After talking with Dunlap, the child asked Dunlap if she could tell Dunlap a secret. J.S. then told Dunlap that defendant had made her “suck his you know what.” She told Dunlap that defendant made her watch dirty movies, defendant had anal intercourse with her, and defendant made her perform oral sex.

After hearing the allegations, Dunlap took J.S. to the Machesny Park police station, where J.S. was interviewed by Dunlap and Detective James Thompkins. J.S. told her interviewers that the abuse had been going on for about three years, since she was five years old. According to J.S., the incidents usually took place after her mother left for work in the morning and J.S.’s brother and sister left for school. J.S. stated that the most recent incident occurred on March 23, 1990, at 7:30 a.m., when defendant had her remove her clothes and he anally penetrated her.

At trial, J.S. testified that defendant forced her to have anal intercourse on March 23, 1990, from 8 to 8:30 a.m., after her mother and siblings had left. Her first memory of abuse was when she was five or six years old. She had been sitting on defendant’s lap when he fondled her genital area through her clothes. She asked defendant if he knew where his hands were, and he stated he did and questioned whether it was all right. J.S. stated that she told defendant it was all right because she did not know better. J.S. estimated that defendant made her perform oral sex on him approximately four times and anally penetrated her approximately four times over the subsequent period of abuse. Defendant would play the videotape of “The Devil and Miss Jones” while engaging in anal intercourse with J.S.

J.S. testified about a particular incident in the summer of 1989 when defendant took her fishing. Defendant forced J.S. to perform oral sex on him, and J.S. testified that she vomited when defendant ejaculated in her mouth. The first time he abused her, defendant told J.S. not to tell anyone about the incident because he would get into trouble.

On cross-examination J.S. testified that her parents had divorced when she was two years old and that she would like her mother and father to be living together. She admitted that she resented Joe moving in with her family and sometimes she would become angry when Joe disciplined her. J.S. denied that a few days before she told Karel Dunlap of the abuse she had been angry with Joe for denying her request to buy a stuffed animal. J.S. did not remember watching an X-rated movie with her brother.

Sandra, J.S.’s mother, corroborated J.S.’s testimony regarding the times that she and J.S.’s siblings left the house in the morning. She stated that J.S. was removed from her house because she, Sandra, had “denied her.”

Detective James Thompkins testified to J.S.’s statements during the interview at the police station on March 26, 1990. Thompkins stated that he had not heard of Leon Jamison, Richard Harris or Tina Larson during the investigation, but he learned of Jamison and Larson approximately a week before trial. Thompkins stated that after he arrested defendant, defendant told Thompkins that he had been at Granny’s Restaurant on March 23, 1990. Defendant denied abusing J.S. Defendant never furnished the names of the people who were with him at the restaurant, and Thompkins never asked him for their names.

Leon Jamison, defendant’s stepfather, testified that on the morning of March 23, 1990, defendant was with him at Granny’s Restaurant from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. Jamison admitted that he had not approached the police with this information despite the fact that he knew of defendant’s arrest on the day it occurred. Jamison testified that he and members of his family met at the restaurant almost every morning, but they did not always come at the same time or in the same order. In response to questioning regarding March 19, 1990, Jamison testified that he remembered on that day that his son-in-law Gary came first and then Tina and Steve arrived at approximately 5:45 a.m.

Richard Harris, defendant’s friend, also testified that defendant was at Granny’s Restaurant at about 8:20 a.m. on March 23, 1990. Harris remembered that defendant left the restaurant at about 8:25 a.m. Defendant told Harris that he was going home to pay bills. Harris admitted that he had not told police this information.

Finally, Tina Larson, defendant’s sister, who was also at Granny’s on the morning at issue, testified that defendant was there when she arrived at 6:30 a.m. and defendant was still there when she left at 7:30 or 7:45 a.m. Larson found out about the defendant’s arrest on the day it occurred, but she did not go to the police with the information that defendant had been with her. No one had ever questioned her about defendant’s whereabouts on that morning.

Defendant testified that Sandra and her ex-husband had been near a reconciliation when defendant met Sandra three years earlier. According to defendant, J.S. did not like him living with her mother, and J.S. had told defendant on two occasions that she would like him to get out of the house. Defendant testified that he never had sex with J.S. and never fondled her in an inappropriate manner.

On March 24, 1990, defendant would not buy J.S. a doll she wanted. J.S. became angry with defendant, and on March 26, 1990, she called defendant names. Before J.S. left for school on March 26, defendant told J.S. she was “grounded.” By “grounded,” defendant meant that J.S. was not to watch television and was to stay in her bedroom after school. Defendant believed that J.S.’s allegations of sexual abuse were in retaliation for the punishment.

Defendant testified that on the morning of March 23, 1990, he was at Granny’s Restaurant from 6:40 a.m. to 8:20 or 8:25 a.m. After leaving, he stopped for gas, and then went home to pick up money and bills. J.S. was-not at home. Defendant admitted that he never told the police the names of the people he was with at Granny’s Restaurant, but the police never asked him.

Defendant denied forcing J.S. to perform oral sex on a fishing outing. According to defendant, he picked J.S. up from school on that date because she had a fever. They fished for awhile, while waiting for Sandra to finish work. J.S. vomited because she was ill.

According to defendant, the victim’s brother once watched the X-rated videos which defendant and Sandy kept in their bedroom. J.S.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
626 N.E.2d 265, 254 Ill. App. 3d 14, 193 Ill. Dec. 232, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 1939, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-jennings-illappct-1993.