People v. Rooseveltause

509 N.E.2d 521, 156 Ill. App. 3d 288, 108 Ill. Dec. 825, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2566
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 14, 1987
DocketNo. 85—2596
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 509 N.E.2d 521 (People v. Rooseveltause) 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. Rooseveltause, 509 N.E.2d 521, 156 Ill. App. 3d 288, 108 Ill. Dec. 825, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2566 (Ill. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

JUSTICE JOHNSON

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, A. R. Rooseveltause, was convicted of rape (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 11—1) following a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County. The trial judge sentenced defendant to the penitentiary for a term of 30 years. On appeal, defendant contends that (1) the State failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of rape, (2) his prison sentence of 30 years was excessive, and (3) the State used its peremptory challenges during voir dire to exclude black venirepersons from the jury.

We affirm in part and remand with directions.

Since defendant contends that he was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, we must recite the testimony at trial in detail. The testimony adduced the following facts. On the night of March 5, 1984, the victim was a patient at Oak Forest Hospital, located at 15900 South Cicero Avenue, in Oak Forest, Illinois. She had been a patient at the hospital for five years. She suffered from an aneurysm in her brain, which was a weakening in one of the blood vessels in her brain; the vessel bled into her brain and became infected. As a result, she was, and still is, semi-comatose and, at times, completely comatose. On that night, she was unresponsive and unable to communicate. She was paralyzed and unable to make any voluntary movements or responses.

On the night of March 5, 1984, defendant was also a patient at Oak Forest Hospital. He had been a patient there for approximately four to five months as a result of a stroke. Ruthie Merrill, a nursing attendant at the hospital, was working the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift at the hospital that night. At approximately 10:50 p.m., on her way to the staff meeting for the shift, she saw defendant sitting in a wheelchair in front of the door to the victim’s room.

The staff meeting lasted approximately five minutes. Merrill and Kathleen McFadden, another nursing attendant, proceeded to their work area. Merrill noticed an empty bed as they passed the victim’s room. Because no one notified them of any reason why the bed would be vacant, they entered the victim’s room to investigate. Defendant was no longer sitting in front of the door.

Merrill and McFadden testified that upon entering the victim’s room, they noticed that the curtain around the victim’s bed was closed, although normally it was not. They further testified that while Merrill investigated the empty bed, McFadden pulled back the curtain. Merrill and McFadden did not then see the victim, but rather another head. McFadden then pulled back the sheet covering the person. The attendants then recognized defendant, lying on the victim, with his pants down and moving his buttocks in an “up and down” manner. The victim’s gown was pulled up around her neck and part of the gown was in her mouth. The plastic diaper that the victim wore, due to her incontinence, was torn on each side, exposing her.

McFadden left the room to seek help. Merrill then asked defendant ' what he was doing, reached through the bed rails, and pushed defendant up 7 or 8 inches. Merrill testified that she saw V-lz to 2 inches of defendant’s sex organ and that it was erect and in the sex organ of the victim. Defendant then rolled back on the victim and continued the attack. Merrill testified that she did not wrestle with defendant for fear of further harming the victim. ■

Less than a minute later, nursing attendants Parker and Brooks entered the room. Parker ordered defendant to get off of the victim and tried unsuccessfully to push defendant away. Parker testified that she saw defendant’s sex organ and that it was flaccid and touching the outside of the victim. Defendant ignored Parker’s command and continued the attack.

Juanita Love, L.P.N., and Lorena Anastacio, R.N., next entered the room. Anastacio ordered defendant three times to get out of the bed. Anastacio testified that after her third order, defendant stared at her and then continued the attack. Anastacio then told defendant that she was going to call security, referring to the hospital’s public safety staff. Anastacio then left the room to make the call. The other medical staff members left the room with her, but Merrill and Love stood by the door and watched defendant.

Merrill then testified that after the nurses left the room, she saw defendant sit on his knees, pull up his pants, raise one leg over the bed rail and then the other. Standing, he buttoned and zipped his pants, buttoned his shirt, sat in his wheelchair, and rolled to the door. Security personnel arrived approximately 30 seconds later, finding defendant outside of the victim’s room, sitting in his wheelchair.

The State charged defendant by information with rape. At the close of trial, the trial judge instructed the jury also on battery at defendant’s request. On July 24, 1985, the jury found defendant guilty of rape and the trial judge entered judgment thereon. At the close of a sentencing hearing on August 28, 1985, the trial judge sentenced defendant to the penitentiary for a term of 30 years. Defendant appeals.

I

Defendant first claims that the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt his guilt of the crime of rape. He admits that the victim was incapable of consenting to an act of intercourse. (See Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 11—1(a).) Rather, defendant contends that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his sex organ penetrated that of the victim, as required by section 11 — 1(b) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 11—1(b)).

Defendant contends that the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient and conflicting and failed to remove all reasonable doubt as to whether his sex organ penetrated that of the victim. First, only Merrill testified that she saw defendant penetrate the victim, out of a total of six medical staff members in the room. Further, Parker testified, in contradiction to Merrill, that defendant’s sex organ was flaccid and touching the outside of the victim.

Defendant additionally points to the testimony of James Owczarski, a lieutenant in the public safety department of the hospital, to discredit Merrill’s testimony. Officer Owczarski testified that he investigated the attack, took statements from the medical staff members in the room, and included them in his report. He testified that Merrill told him that she, not McFadden, pulled back the curtain around the victim’s bed and that McFadden stayed in the room long enough to help her in her attempt to push defendant off of the victim. Further, McFadden also told Officer Owczarski that Merrill, not she, pulled back the curtain. These statements contradicted what Merrill and McFadden testified at trial. Defendant now argues that “the unusual and shocking sight of the defendant in bed with [the victim] excited Ruthie Merrill to the point where her ability to perceive events and facts became patently distorted,” and further, her “perception of the occurrence must be deemed suspect and unreliable.”

Officer Owczarski additionally testified that Anastacio told him that- defendant was not moving while lying on the victim. McFadden told him also that defendant’s pants were not lowered but that the front of them was open.

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

Related

People v. Rooseveltause
568 N.E.2d 403 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1991)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
509 N.E.2d 521, 156 Ill. App. 3d 288, 108 Ill. Dec. 825, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2566, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-rooseveltause-illappct-1987.