People v. Uselding

578 N.E.2d 100, 217 Ill. App. 3d 1063, 160 Ill. Dec. 921, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1242
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 19, 1991
DocketNo. 1-88-3338
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 578 N.E.2d 100 (People v. Uselding) 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. Uselding, 578 N.E.2d 100, 217 Ill. App. 3d 1063, 160 Ill. Dec. 921, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1242 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

JUSTICE GORDON

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial, the defendant, John Uselding, was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of his granddaughter (USELDING. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 12 — 16(b)), and sentenced to three years’ conditional discharge. Defendant appeals, contending that he was not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, that the State failed to disclose information which tended to negate his guilt in violation of Illinois rules of discovery, and that he was deprived of his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

Facts

There is no dispute that at the time in question, February 4, 1987, the complainant, C., was 13 years old and in the eighth grade. C., her sister Debbie and brother John had lived with their grandparents for approximately eight years following the divorce of their parents. C. testified that on February 4 she arrived home from school at approximately 3:20 p.m. The defendant, her grandfather, was the only person home. C. testified that when she arrived home, defendant said it was “showtime,” which she understood from past experience to mean that he was going to “fool around” with her. C. went upstairs to change her clothes, and defendant began to follow her. At that point, her grandmother, Bernice Uselding, and Pastor McMahon arrived at the house. C. continued upstairs to change from the dress she had worn to school into pants, while the defendant joined his wife and the pastor in the kitchen. The pastor left after 5 or 10 minutes. At about 3:35, Bernice Uselding also left to pick up Debbie at school and to pick up dinner at a nearby Arby’s.

According to C., after the grandmother left, defendant told C. to go upstairs to the bathroom, which she did. He followed her, removed her clothes, and fondled her for approximately 10 minutes. The defendant then went to the downstairs bathroom, and C. heard the toilet flush a few seconds later. She got dressed and went downstairs to do her homework. The complainant’s brother John arrived home at about 4 p.m., and sometime after that Bernice Uselding and Debbie returned with food for dinner. The family ate Arby’s sandwiches for dinner that evening.

C. further testified that later that evening her school friend Karen Carlson called her. C. told Karen that “it happened again,” and asked Karen to tell a counsellor at school about what was happening, which Karen did on February 6, 1987. C. testified that other such incidents of sexual abuse by the defendant had occurred in the past, and that several months earlier, she had told Karen of one such incident involving the defendant.

On cross-examination, C. admitted that prior to the time of the alleged incident she had had some disagreements with her grandparents about their strict discipline and rules. She further stated that the day after the incident she told her father that she no longer wanted to live with her grandparents and that she wanted to live with her friend Karen. However, she denied that she made these accusations against her grandfather in order to escape the house. On redirect, C. said that after making the allegations against her grandfather, other family members harassed her and called her a liar.

Karen Carlson, C.’s friend, also testified for the prosecution. She said that when she called C. in the evening on February 4, 1987, she noticed something unusual in C.’s voice. When asked what was wrong, C. responded “it happened again.” Karen said that, based on something C. had told her several months earlier, she believed that C.’s remark related to C.’s grandfather. Karen verified C.’s testimony that C. asked her to tell the counsellor at school what was happening, which Karen did two days later. Following Karen’s testimony, the State rested.

The defendant’s wife, Bernice Uselding, testified for the defense as to her recollection of the events of February 4, 1987. Her testimony with respect to times of arrival and departure and destinations that afternoon differed from that of the complainant. According to Bernice Uselding, she and the pastor arrived at the house at 3:10, and C. returned from school at 3:15. The pastor left a few minutes past 3:30, after making a telephone call to inform his 3:30 appointment that he was running late. Mrs. Uselding then told her husband to warm up some soup, put biscuits in the oven and set the table for dinner. She left the house at 3:40 to pick up Debbie and Debbie’s friend Rosalia Affatigato from high school. The round trip to the high school takes seven to eight minutes.

According to Mrs. Uselding, she and Debbie returned home at approximately 3:50, after dropping off Rosalia at her house IV2 blocks from the Uselding house, and making no other stops. When they arrived, C. was doing her homework, John had returned from school and the table had been set. The family sat down to dinner a few minutes before 4 p.m. She further stated that she did not stop at any Ar-by’s before returning home and that they did not have Arby’s sandwiches for dinner. Mrs. Uselding testified that she noticed nothing unusual in C.’s behavior that evening.

Mrs. Uselding also testified as to the events of February 6, 1987. On that day her husband was contacted by the police, and she accompanied him to the station where they were told of the accusations made by C. When Mrs. Uselding saw C. at the station, C. was laughing with her friend Karen. Mrs. Uselding also testified that when she took C. to the hospital for an examination that evening after the defendant’s arrest, C. said “I knew they wouldn’t find anything wrong with me. Just get Grampy to admit it and I can go live by Karen.” Several weeks after the incident, C. ran away to Karen’s house after a disagreement with Mrs. Uselding about C. going to a party. C. told her grandmother that she no longer wanted to stay in the house. Mrs. Uselding had her admitted to the hospital.

On cross-examination, Bernice Uselding testified that on the day in question her grandson John was due home from school at 3:40. John attended special education classes, and it was necessary that someone be home when the school bus dropped him off. Mrs. Uselding said that she was usually the one who would meet him when the bus arrived. She could not explain why her husband did not go to pick up Debbie from high school that day, which would have permitted her to be home when John arrived.

The next witness was C.’s sister, Debbie. She testified that Mrs. Uselding picked up Rosalia and her at 3:46, and after dropping Rosalia off, she and her grandmother went directly home and arrived there at 3:51. Debbie said that she and her sister had a close relationship in the past, but that it had deteriorated since the occurrence of the events which led to defendant’s arrest. Debbie also testified that in December 1986, C. had said she wanted to live with Karen’s family because they were not as strict as her grandparents. According to Debbie, C. had complained of her grandparent’s rules on many occasions.

On cross-examination Debbie testified as to a conversation she had with C. the night of February 4, 1987. When the girls were in bed in the room they shared, C. told Debbie that “it happened again.” Debbie interpreted this to refer to what C. had told her in November 1986, that their grandfather had been touching C.

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Bluebook (online)
578 N.E.2d 100, 217 Ill. App. 3d 1063, 160 Ill. Dec. 921, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1242, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-uselding-illappct-1991.