People v. Jones

528 N.E.2d 1363, 174 Ill. App. 3d 737, 124 Ill. Dec. 255, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 1360
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided September 22, 1988·No. 4-88-0039·Published·Cited by 17 cases

Opinion

JUSTICE KNECHT

delivered the opinion of the court:

After a jury trial, defendant was convicted of one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 12— 14(b)(1)), a Class X felony. The trial court sentenced defendant to a term of eight years’ imprisonment. Defendant appeals from the judg-' ment of the circuit court of Macon County, arguing (1) the jury’s verdicts, finding him guilty of aggravated criminal sexual assault based on count I and acquitting him of the offense of aggravated criminal sexual assault as stated in count II, were logically inconsistent and he was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; and (2) the trial court committed reversible error in sustaining an objection to defendant’s cross-examination of the examining physician on rape trauma syndrome. We affirm.

The information charged defendant with the offense of aggravated criminal sexual assault, committed on or about July 4, 1987, through August 20, 1987. Count I alleged defendant committed an act of sexual penetration of the victim by use of his finger; count II charged defendant with committing an act of sexual penetration upon the victim by the use of the tongue. The jury trial was conducted on December 16 and 17,1987.

Defendant was 54 years old and the complaining witness was eight years old. Defendant was a friend of complaining witness’ family and had done some baby-sitting for the family in December 1986. During the summer of 1987, defendant would take the complaining witness or one of her two sisters, one at a time, swimming or fishing. During these visits, defendant would pick the child up by car from her home in the morning, take her swimming or fishing, and then to his house for lunch before returning her to her home. Defendant generally brought the child home at about 1 in the afternoon.

Defendant took each child to swim at a residence in Warrensburg, Illinois, and took them fishing at various locations. The victim’s mother testified her eight-year-old daughter started going to defendant’s house about the beginning of July 1987, and the last day the girl went to defendant’s house was August 20, 1987. According to the victim’s mother, defendant brought the eight-year-old home about 3:30 or 4 p.m. on August 20.

At trial, the complaining witness testified she first went to defendant’s house after he took her fishing, after school let out for the summer. She said defendant also took her swimming. She did not know how many times she went swimming or fishing. When he took her swimming it would be for about half an hour, and then he would say they had to leave. She said defendant would then take her to his house for lunch. She named the man who resided with defendant and said he was home once when she arrived with defendant, but left after about a minute. The eight-year-old testified that after lunch, defendant would take her into his bedroom, at which time no one else was home. The child was questioned as follows about what would happen in the bedroom:

“Q. [PROSECUTOR]: What would happen in the bedroom?
A. [COMPLAINING WITNESS]: He would do it-do that.
Q. Do what?
A. Touch me down at my privates.
Q. Your privates?
A. Yes.
Q. What would he do to you?
A. He would lick me and put his finger up there.
Q. Now, did you Want him to do this?
A. No.
Q. How many times did he do this?
A. About four.”

The prosecutor had the child look at a diagram of a girl and then asked her, “What I would like you to do is just draw where [defendant] touched you. Can you do that for us?” Asked what the area she circled was called, the child answered, “private parts.” The victim testified defendant would pull down her sweat pants and, when he was done, pull her pants back up. She said defendant would then tell her, “Don’t tell your mom.”

The complaining witness did tell her mother on the night of August 24, 1987. Asked how she felt when she told her mother, she said she was scared because defendant said " ‘not to tell your mom.’ ” The complaining witness acknowledged that on August 20, defendant had questioned her about two neighborhood boys and whether she let them touch her private parts or whether she touched their private parts, and told her he was going to tell her mother what he found out once he asked some further questions. She denied telling defendant she had allowed the boys to touch her private parts or that she had touched them.

The victim’s mother testified that on the night of August 24, 1987, she was sitting downstairs watching television and the eight-year-old was lying on the couch waiting for her father to come home. The mother said she heard her two other daughters using some language in their bedroom which she had not heard them use before. She called them in and told them they had five minutes to tell her where they learned these words or she would use her bar of Ivory soap. She said the following then happened:

“[The complaining witness] jumped up off the couch, put her hands like this, and said ‘Mommy, I’m scared.’ And I said, ‘of what.’ I said ‘because you didn’t say anything.’ She said ‘No, mommy, you know how you are supposed to tell, you know you told me to tell if ever I had been touched somewhere I shouldn’t be.’ And I said, ‘yes, I do.’ And she said, ‘well, mommy, I was.’ ”

She testified the complaining witness then told her where she had been touched and she called the police.

Officer Campbell arrived and talked to the victim’s mother. Officer Campbell testified he spoke to the complaining witness on the evening of August 24 and she informed him she had been touched in her “private parts,” so Campbell took the victim and her mother to Decatur Memorial Hospital, where they remained from about 11 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. for the child’s examination.

Dr. Semones testified he examined the complaining witness at the hospital in the early morning hours of August 25, 1987. He said the child gave him history that a family friend, who had on occasion taken her swimming, had used his finger to fondle her in the vaginal area, and he had also kissed her in the genital area. He testified the child’s hymen was present, but was rather loose and not totally intact as is sometimes seen in children. Based on the history obtained and the physical examination, Dr. Semones said in his opinion some sort of sexual contact had occurred. He based his opinion on the detailed reporting the child gave of what happened and the fact she did not change her story while he talked to her about it.

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People v. Jones, 528 N.E.2d 1363, 174 Ill. App. 3d 737, 124 Ill. Dec. 255, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 1360 (Ill. Ct. App. 1988).

528 N.E.2d 1363 (People v. Jones) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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