Yunez v. Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

2024 IL App (1st) 230614-U
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 27, 2024
Docket1-23-0614
StatusUnpublished

This text of 2024 IL App (1st) 230614-U (Yunez v. Illinois Department of Children and Family Services) 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
Yunez v. Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, 2024 IL App (1st) 230614-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

2024 IL App (1st) 230614-U

No. 1-23-0614

Order filed June 27, 2024

Fourth Division

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 FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT

SAMUEL YUNEZ, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellant, ) Cook County. ) v. ) 21 CH 1871 ) ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY ) SERVICES, ) Honorable, ) Celia G. Gamrath, Defendant-Appellee. ) Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE MARTIN delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice Rochford and Justice Hoffman concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The decision of the Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to deny medical doctor’s request for expungement was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.

¶2 Plaintiff, Dr. Samuel Yunez, appeals from an order of the circuit court of Cook County

affirming a final administrative decision of the Illinois Department of Children and Family

Services (DCFS) denying his request to expunge an indicated finding of sexual penetration entered

against him under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act (Reporting Act) (325 ILCS 5/1 No. 1-23-0614

et seq. (West 2014)).

¶3 Dr. Yunez makes essentially two arguments on appeal: (1) the Administrative Law Judge

(ALJ) erred and violated his constitutional right to cross-examine and confront witnesses by

admitting out-of-court hearsay statements the alleged victims made during forensic interviews;

and (2) the DCFS director’s final administrative decision denying expungement was against the

manifest weight of the evidence. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

¶4 I. BACKGROUND

¶5 Dr. Yunez is a family practice physician with training and experience in obstetrics and

gynecology. At the time of the events at issue, Dr. Yunez was 60 years old and had been a physician

for over 30 years. Yolanda is the mother of twin daughters P.S. and C.S. Dr. Yunez delivered both

children on November 26, 2001. The doctor was also P.S. and C.S.’s pediatrician.

¶6 On May 14, 2019, DCFS received a hotline report alleging that Dr. Yunez had sexually

abused P.S. Specifically, it was alleged that during a gynecological examination, Dr. Yunez

inserted his fingers into P.S.’s vagina, kissed and licked her vaginal area, and then asked her if she

liked it.

¶7 DCFS investigated the matter and determined there was credible evidence to support

indicated findings against Dr. Yunez for sexual penetration of P.S. and for substantial risk of sexual

injury to her twin sister C.S.

¶8 In a letter dated December 11, 2019, DCFS notified Dr. Yunez of its indicated findings and

advised him of his right to appeal the decision. He was also informed that if his administrative

appeal was unsuccessful, the indicated findings would be retained on file in the state central

register for fifty years. Dr. Yunez filed an administrative appeal seeking to have the indicated

findings expunged.

2 No. 1-23-0614

¶9 A. Administrative Appeal Hearings

¶ 10 On October 27, 2020 and February 2, 2021, the ALJ conducted hearings pursuant to Dr.

Yunez’s request to expunge the indicated findings. Prior to the hearings, the ALJ admitted into

evidence video recordings of both P.S.’s and C.S.’s forensic interviews taken at the Proviso

Children’s Advocacy Center. The parties stipulated to the foundations of the respective forensic

interviews, and both were admitted into evidence without objection - subject to the doctor’s

counsel’s right to cross examine both P.S. and C.S.

¶ 11 The following evidence was presented at the hearings. Yolanda testified through a Spanish

language interpreter that on May 13, 2019, she took her 17-year-old twins to Dr. Yunez for return

appointments to assess whether medication the doctor prescribed earlier had been effective in

treating the twins’ vaginal infections, which were possibly caused by intrauterine devices (IUDs).

In addition, P.S. sought treatment for a foot injury she sustained while playing soccer.

¶ 12 Yolanda sat in the waiting room of Dr. Yunez’s medical office while he examined her

daughters, who had requested to be put in separate examination rooms. The doctor saw C.S. first,

and after her examination was finished, she returned to the waiting area where she and Yolanda

waited for P.S. While they were waiting, C.S. received a text message from P.S. asking C.S. to

come to her examination room. When P.S. returned to the waiting area, her face looked “[v]ery

different.” Yolanda asked P.S. was anything wrong, because she looked like someone told “her

she was going to die tomorrow.”

¶ 13 In the car on the way home, P.S. was quiet and rested her head on the car seat. Yolanda

continued asking P.S. “what was wrong,” but P.S. just cried. When they arrived home, P.S. went

to her room and locked the door. Later that evening, P.S.’s boyfriend came to the house and spoke

with P.S. and C.S., and afterwards left. Then, sometime after midnight, the boyfriend returned to

3 No. 1-23-0614

the house, accompanied by his sister. The boyfriend spoke with Yolanda and discovered that she

was unaware of what P.S. had told him occurred at the doctor’s office. Yolanda started crying and

asked P.S. to come out of her room.

¶ 14 Yolanda asked P.S. why she had not told her what happened at Dr. Yunez’s office. P.S.

responded that she did not say anything because she felt no one would believe her since Dr. Yunez

had been her doctor all her life. Yolanda then testified as to what P.S. told her concerning the

incident.

¶ 15 According to Yolanda, P.S. stated that when Dr. Yunez first came into the examination

room, he made comparisons between P.S. and C.S., commenting that C.S. “would get mad easier

and [was] talkative,” while P.S. “was more quiet.” Dr. Yunez examined P.S. with a “long stick”

and a “little brush,” which he repeatedly put in and out of her vagina. Dr. Yunez “put his tongue

around [P.S’s] vagina and then he introduced the tongue inside the vagina and then he asked [in

Spanish] did you like it?” P.S. responded “no, you’re my doctor.” Dr. Yunez stood up, leaned over

P.S., and put his hand over her mouth and told her not to say anything. The doctor was so close

that P.S. felt his penis on her leg.

¶ 16 Yolanda took P.S. to the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to report the incident. P.S. was

then taken to the hospital to undergo a sexual assault examination.

¶ 17 Tianna Price, an emergency room nurse at Advocate Trinity Hospital, testified that she

examined P.S. and noted that she was anxious and nervous. Nurse Price administered a sexual

assault kit and collected the underwear P.S. was wearing at the time of the incident. P.S. told the

nurse that when Dr. Yunez first came into the examination room he was accompanied by his

medical assistant, but that the medical assistant soon left the room, leaving her alone with the

doctor. Dr. Yunez commented on the personality differences between P.S. and her twin sister C.S.,

4 No. 1-23-0614

expressing that P.S. was more approachable than her sister. P.S. thought that the doctor’s

comments were “odd.”

¶ 18 P.S. said that during the examination, Dr. Yunez inserted his fingers into her vagina and

asked her if she liked it.

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