People v. Zeas

2020 IL App (2d) 170437-U
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 20, 2020
Docket2-17-0437
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2020 IL App (2d) 170437-U (People v. Zeas) 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. Zeas, 2020 IL App (2d) 170437-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

2020 IL App (2d) 170437-U No. 2-17-0437 Order filed March 20, 2020

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and may not be cited as precedent by any party except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). ______________________________________________________________________________

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

SECOND DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE ) Appeal from the Circuit Court OF ILLINOIS, ) of McHenry County. ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) v. ) No. 15-CF-297 ) JAMES ZEAS, ) Honorable ) Michael W. Feetterer, Sharon L. Prather, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judges, Presiding. ______________________________________________________________________________

JUSTICE BRENNAN delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Jorgensen and Schostok concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the DVD evidence; the charged images were lewd as contemplated by the child pornography statute (720 ILCS 5/11-20.1(a)(1)(vii) (West 2014)); the penalty imposed for the offense of child pornography does not violate the proportionate penalties clause of the Illinois Constitution when compared to the unauthorized video recording statute (720 ILCS 5/26-4(a) (West 2014)). We affirm.

¶2 In 2009, defendant James Zeas secretly recorded his 15-year old niece, A.S., whose breasts

were exposed while she changed her clothes in a public co-ed changing room. In 2011, defendant’s

wife, Bozena Kalita, found the recording on defendant’s computer, burned a copy, and ultimately

it was provided to the police. Defendant was charged with one count of child pornography (720 2020 IL App (2d) 170437-U

ILCS 5/11-20.1(a)(1)(West 2014)) and was found guilty following a bench trial. Defendant

contends that: (1) the trial court erred in admitting the DVD into evidence, as it lacked the proper

foundation and was premised on unreliable testimony; (2) the surreptitiously recorded video was

not lewd within the meaning of the child pornography statute; and (3) his conviction for child

pornography violates the proportionate penalties clause of the Illinois Constitution. We affirm.

¶3 I. FACTS

¶4 When Kalita and defendant were married in April 2009, Kalita’s sister and her family,

including her niece, A.S., travelled from Poland to visit. They stayed with Kalita and defendant

in their home and A.S. turned 15 years’ old during the visit. Defendant and the family celebrated

her fifteenth birthday together on June 30, 2009.

¶5 On April 14, 2011, Kalita told defendant that she would be filing for divorce. The next

day, Kalita found some videos on defendant’s computer that were taken in a co-ed family changing

room at the Algonquin Lifetime Fitness health club where she and defendant were members, and

frequently visited. In those videos, she recognized her niece, A.S., her nephew, M.S., her daughter,

and defendant. Defendant is seen setting up a recording device prior to the children entering the

changing room, where it does not appear they knew the device was placed. In the second of three

video clips located on defendant’s computer, A.S. is recorded changing her clothes with her naked

breasts displayed. Kalita believed defendant had used his cell phone to record the videos, but she

had no knowledge which phone he had used to make the recordings. After viewing the videos,

she discussed them with defendant on the telephone. Defendant told Kalita that she had failed to

understand the videos; it was not what it seemed; and he could lose his license if the videos “came

out.”

-2- 2020 IL App (2d) 170437-U

¶6 Kalita burned the videos to a DVD and brought the DVD and the computer to her divorce

attorney’s office in April or May 2011. Two of the three video clips copied to the DVD are at

issue in the present case. The first clip depicts defendant hiding a recording device in the co-ed

family changing room at Lifetime Fitness. The recorder is hidden on a towel dispenser and pointed

at a large countertop mirror. The device then recorded images that were reflected off the mirror.

Defendant, A.S., and M.S. appear in the recording. After defendant hides the recorder, A.S. and

her brother walk in. Defendant tells the boy to leave and let A.S. use the changing room first.

Defendant and his nephew leave A.S. alone in the changing room after which she uses the toilet

and changes into her bathing suit. During this entire period, only A.S.’s head is seen, and no nudity

is depicted. The first clip ends with defendant in view retrieving the recording device.

¶7 The second clip is another recording in the same family changing room, again using the

mirror’s reflection to capture images. First, defendant is recorded adjusting the camera to focus

on the area where the toilet is located. Once satisfied with the angle, defendant secretes the

recording device with paper towels and a baseball cap. Defendant exits and moments later his

nephew walks into the changing room, changes out of his swimsuit, and leaves. A.S. then enters

the changing room wearing her swimsuit. She closes the door, turns and stands in front of the

mirror, visible only from the waist up. A.S. then proceeds to take off her bathing suit top, exposing

her fully developed breasts. She then puts on clothes and exits the changing room. A.S. never

looks at the camera and appears unaware that she is being recorded. Later in the second clip,

defendant is viewed removing the recording device.

¶8 Kalita and defendant divorced in 2012, although post-decree proceedings continued

through 2016. Kalita received the DVD and computer back from her attorney in 2012, and she

-3- 2020 IL App (2d) 170437-U

kept the computer in the garage of her home. Kalita did not make any other copies of the video

clips. In January 2015, Kalita gave the DVD to Camille Goodwin, the guardian ad litem for her

divorce, who then turned it over to the Algonquin Police Department about five days later.

Detective Misty Mariner secured the DVD in the police department’s vault after receiving it on

January 7, 2015. Mariner, who was a member of Algonquin Lifetime Fitness, also recognized the

family changing room and subsequently photographed the room that appeared in the DVD. The

photographs and the DVD were admitted at trial.

¶9 At the conclusion of defendant’s bench trial, the court found defendant guilty of child

pornography based upon the second video clip. Specifically, the court found the State had proved

that A.S. was under 18 years’ old at the time defendant recorded her while aware of her age, and

that the display of her breasts on the video clip were lewd such that it constituted child

pornography. The court’s lewdness determination was premised upon the Illinois Supreme Court’s

six-factor test for lewdness adopted in People v. Lamborn, 185 Ill. 2d 585, 592 (1999), and this

court’s analysis of the sixth factor in People v. Sven, 365 Ill. App. 3d 226 (2006).

¶ 10 After denying defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and for a new

trial, the court sentenced defendant to four years’ imprisonment.

¶ 11 Defendant timely appeals.

¶ 12 II. ANALYSIS

¶ 13 A. Admission of Evidence

¶ 14 We first address defendant’s argument that the trial court erred in admitting the DVD

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

Related

Zeas v. Garnett
N.D. Illinois, 2023

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2020 IL App (2d) 170437-U, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-zeas-illappct-2020.