People v. Cora, 1-90-1864

• Decision Date: 13 November 1992
• Docket Number: No. 1-90-1864,1-90-1864
• Citation: 179 Ill.Dec. 623,238 Ill.App.3d 492,606 N.E.2d 455
• Parties: , 179 Ill.Dec. 623 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Luis CORA, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 455

606 N.E.2d 455

238 Ill.App.3d 492, 179 Ill.Dec. 623

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Luis CORA, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-90-1864.

Appellate Court of Illinois First District, Sixth Division.

Nov. 13, 1992.

George P. Lynch, Chicago, for defendant-appellant.

Jack O'Malley, State's Atty. of Cook County, Chicago (Renee Goldfarb, David Stabrawa and Michael J. Monaco, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellee.

Presiding Justice EGAN delivered the opinion of the court:

After a bench trial, the defendant, Luis Cora, a school teacher, was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of one of his students and official misconduct. He was sentenced to 30 months probation with the first 60 days to be served in the county jail. He contends that he was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, that his confession should have been suppressed and that the indictment should have been dismissed.

K.P. was a 15 year-old freshman at Lakeview High School in September 1986 through December 1986. The defendant was her biology teacher. She had a class with the defendant five days a week and was his aide during her study periods three days a week. She testified that the defendant had her start sitting on his lap at his desk in October of 1986. He began kissing her in the second week of October; this continued regularly until December 1986.

Their relationship became more serious in December 1986 in the vault, or storage room, adjacent to the defendant's classroom. At this time, the defendant unbuttoned K.P.'s blouse and pulled down her pants and kissed her bellybutton and buttocks. The defendant pulled his zipper down, pulled out his penis and embraced her; his penis eventually touched her vagina. Throughout the incident she was telling the defendant to please stop. She did not have any contact with the defendant outside of class after this incident.

At the end of the 1986 school year, K.P.'s parents moved away and she transferred to Roosevelt High School. She returned to Lakeview in September 1988, her junior year, after she ran away from home and moved in with her grandmother, who resided in the Lakeview High School district. She saw the defendant her first day back in school and had a brief conversation with him. Her next contact with him was one month later when she attempted to deliver a message to him after class. The defendant was in the vault, and he called out for her. He answered the message and then attempted to coax her over to him; he tried to hug her. After the third contact with the defendant, K.P. went to see her gym teacher, Geraldine Upshaw, for whom she acted as a teacher's aide. At the time of trial, she was about the same height and was about five pounds lighter than she was in 1986. Her hair was a lighter shade of blond in 1986, but she had the same general appearance.

She did not tell her homeroom teacher, the police officer at the school, her friends or her mother about the incidents with the defendant. She did tell another Lakeview teacher in October 1986 that the defendant was making her sit on his lap. At the time of trial she was still in high school and was living with her fiance.

Geraldine Upshaw was a physical education teacher at Lakeview in January of 1989. She testified that K.P. became her teacher's aide and talked to her as a friend. After talking with K.P. on January 17, 1989, she went to the principal and then to the school's social worker.

Youth Officer Donald Muscolino testified that at 8:30 a.m. on January 19, 1989, he telephoned the defendant at Lakeview High School and asked the defendant to come down to the station. The defendant responded that he would "gladly" come down. The defendant arrived at the station at about 10:30 a.m.

Muscolino and his partner, Officer DeBartolo, brought the defendant to their office. Muscolino advised the defendant of his Miranda rights, and the defendant said he understood. The defendant did not ask for an attorney and agreed to answer questions at this time.

Muscolino told the defendant that a former student of his alleged that the defendant had taken certain liberties with her. The defendant discussed these allegations with the officers and then gave an oral statement. Muscolino again advised the defendant of his rights. After he finished talking to the defendant between 11:00 and 11:15 a.m., he called Assistant State's Attorney Anne Kent, who arrived at the station at about 11:30 a.m. Muscolino told her of the allegations of K.P. and the defendant's statement. Kent interviewed K.P. and then the defendant. Kent advised the defendant of his rights. The defendant repeated the statement he had given the police officers. Kent wrote out the defendant's statement and gave it to the defendant to read. The defendant made a couple of changes to the statement and then signed it.

In his statement the defendant said that K.P. was his teacher's aide in October 1986. She was experiencing family problems and would come to the defendant to talk during or after class. He would kiss her, and she would kiss him on the lips and cheek. He kissed her on the belly button, breasts and on her buttocks. She came to him about three times a week between October 1986 and January 1987. Sometime in December 1986, the defendant undressed K.P. with her help and embraced her in the vault adjacent to her classroom while his penis was out of his pants. K.P. left Lakeview for a year, and after she returned nothing happened.

Because resolution of the issue of the sufficiency of evidence requires consideration of the defendant's confession, we will first address his claim that the confession should have been suppressed.

The defendant testified at the suppression hearing that he had been employed as a biology teacher by the Chicago Board of Education for 13 years. On the morning of January 19, 1989, he received a phone call from Officer Muscolino. Muscolino told him that there was a problem involving a Lakeview High School student, but he refused to tell the defendant the name of the student. Muscolino told the defendant to come down to the station for questioning. The defendant said that he would be through with classes at 3:30 p.m. Muscolino told him that he would have to come down right away or the police would come and get him. After speaking with his principal, the defendant drove to the station, arriving at approximately 10:30 a.m.

The defendant waited for about 45 minutes before Muscolino came and took him to his office. Muscolino asked him if he knew K.P., and the defendant said that he knew her. Muscolino told him that K.P. had stated that the defendant had kissed her, fondled her and placed his penis on her vagina. When the defendant denied these allegations, Muscolino told him that he should cooperate with the police because the whole process would be much easier if the defendant would accept these facts and give a written statement; Muscolino promised to tell the judge that the defendant had cooperated and, considering the defendant's lack of a criminal record, the judge would go easy on him, setting a bond for only $100. After this bond was posted, the defendant would be free to go on with his life and job.

Muscolino then told him that if he did not cooperate, the judge would probably set a very high bond considering the seriousness of the case. The defendant continued to deny the allegations for about an hour during which the officers kept repeating what Muscolino had said earlier. The officers told the defendant that they were his friends.

The defendant eventually admitted the allegations, stating that he did so because the truth was not getting him anywhere and he thought that admitting these facts would be the only way of getting out of the station and back to his classroom.

The defendant testified that he first saw Anne Kent at about 2:30 p.m. Kent greeted him "very charmingly, very nicely, very warmly." She asked the defendant how he was and he responded that he was nervous. She responded by grabbing each of his wrists and telling him not to worry because everything was going to be fine. The defendant subsequently signed the written statement that was prepared by Kent.

The defendant admitted that he was advised of his rights. The defendant understood the rights, but did not pay much attention to them. The officers did not physically harm him in any way, but the defendant was "mentally scared." He was "scared" because the officers told him that he would get three years of imprisonment. He did not tell Kent about the officers' threats and promises because she did not give him the chance.

The officers and Kent contradicted the defendant. Muscolino and DeBartolo testified that no threats or promises were made to the defendant. Muscolino said that the defendant never denied committing any of the alleged acts.

Kent testified that she wrote out the defendant's statement based on the information the defendant supplied and asked him to clarify or explain certain things as she went along. The defendant signed each page of the statement. He said that there were some errors present; Kent corrected the statement and the defendant initialed the corrections. Kent also said that no promises or threats were made to the defendant. She denied touching the defendant's wrists and telling him "nothing is going to happen to you."

No purpose would be served by an analysis of the evidence. Suffice it to say that this case presented a question of fact which was resolved against the defendant. That resolution by the trial judge was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. (See People v. Poole (1991), 222 Ill.App.3d 689, 165 Ill.Dec. 189, 584 N.E.2d 368.) The principal case relied upon by the defendant, People v. Ruegger (1975), 32 Ill.App.3d 765, 336 N.E.2d 50, was an affirmance of the trial judge's ruling suppressing a confession. Like the court in Ruegger, we hold that we must defer to the trial judge's determination of...