Court Opinion

ID: 9714490
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:38:45.464064+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:26.396604
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE EARNS, dissenting: The evidence in this case simply does not establish that the admitted acts of intercourse were done by force and against the will of the prosecutrix; it does prove that each defendant, as well as the minor female participant, is guilty of contributing to the sexual delinquency of a child under section 11 — 5 of the Criminal Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 11 — 5). A fair consideration of the evidence convinces me that the idea of meeting these boys at the vacant house was conceived by the complainant, who had previously arranged to stay at her girlfriend’s, Sandy Stice’s, house that night. She sent the note to the boys at lunchtime to meet her after school at her locker. She accompanied them first to the art room, then upstairs to the vacant English room and then to the vacant house. By her own admission sexual touching occurred at the art room and as they walked to Sharon Hiller’s house. As they walked to Sharon’s house, the complainant was laughing as she conversed with defendants, according to Loretta Davis, a disinterested witness. One defendant asked her to “have sex” in the art room, and she made no complaint to the principal or any teacher. The complaint of “rape” was made after her sister and Sandy’s mother found out, over her protest, about the incident. She wrote at least one note to one of the defendants after the incident. The note expressed her concern with the general rumors around school that her conduct had been voluntary and that she was tired of being called, in her words, “a nigger lover and stuff.” Her own testimony strongly suggests that she told Dennis Monroe that she knew he did not rape her, but there was no reason for concern as he would receive probation. Her girlfriend, Sandy Stice, stood immediately outside the vacant house for the extended period of time that these acts took place, but she heard no scream, no outcries, just muted conversation. When the three girls finally came into the room, Spencer Bouldin and the prosecutrix were engaging in sexual intercourse. No complaint was made, nothing was said for the two minutes before Bouldin left. One of the girls earlier saw her at the front window and she waved. She then said that “she didn’t really want to do it but they forced her.” She appeared normal and made no complaint. Sandy’s mother, Sandra Hassard, testified that she didn’t recall the words “rape” or “force” being used, just that she had sex with four boys, and Mrs. Hassard thought that the police ought to know about it. The statements of the defendants admitted in evidence are not incriminating but are supportive of defendants’ claims that the acts of sexual intercourse were voluntary. They were given to the Sparta police separately and are consistent in their versions of what occurred.