People v. Rademacher
| Decision Date | 04 April 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 3–13–0881.,3–13–0881. |
| Citation | 59 N.E.3d 12,405 Ill.Dec. 719 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Timothy J. RADEMACHER, Defendant–Appellant. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
Michael J. Pelletier and James Ryan Williams, both of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Springfield, for appellant.
James A. Devine, State's Attorney, of Watseka (Dawn D. Duffy, of State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Office, of counsel), for the People.
delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.
¶ 1 Defendant, Timothy J. Rademacher, appeals the first-stage dismissal of his pro se postconviction petition. On appeal, defendant argues that his petition stated the gist of a constitutional claim. We affirm.
¶ 3 Defendant pled guilty to predatory criminal sexual assault of a child (720 ILCS 5/12–14.1(a)(1)
(West 2004)) and criminal sexual assault (720 ILCS 5/12–13(a)(4) (West 2004)). In exchange for defendant's plea, the State agreed to an aggregate sentencing range of 12 to 35 years' imprisonment on the mandatorily consecutive sentences. As the factual basis for the plea, the parties agreed that if the case proceeded to trial, B.B. would testify that he had sexual intercourse with defendant at the church's parsonage in September 2002, when B.B. was 13 years old. Further, the parties agreed that C.L. would testify that he had sexual intercourse with defendant in the parsonage between January 2003 and June 2005, when he was under 13 years old. The court accepted defendant's guilty plea.
¶ 4 The Iroquois County probation department submitted a presentence investigation report (PSI), which the trial court considered at defendant's sentencing. In a statement included in the PSI, defendant admitted to sexual activity with B.B. and C.L. while each was spending the night at the parsonage where defendant lived. The incidents occurred while defendant was employed as a youth minister at Ashkum United Methodist Church. Reports in the PSI indicated that the church was located at 208 North Third Street, in Ashkum, while the church parsonage was located at 303 East Washington Street. Statements from the victims also indicated that all incidents in question took place at the parsonage.
¶ 5 The PSI also included a reference to a child pornography case pending in another jurisdiction. This included a number of photographs from that case, which had allegedly been downloaded onto a church computer. The court overruled defense counsel's objection to the photographs, noting that defendant had admitted to downloading the photographs onto the computer.
¶ 6 The PSI included a victim impact statement from C.L. In the statement, C.L. described the stress that the offense had caused him, including flashbacks and nightmares. B.B.'s mother also wrote a victim impact statement. In the statement, she wrote: She also wrote: The court also considered the fact that one of the victims had brought a lawsuit against the church. With the consent of the parties, the court also considered a number of letters sent to the court by the public.
¶ 7 At sentencing, the State read C.L.'s victim impact statement while B.B.'s mother read her own. C.L.'s parents wrote statements after the filing of the PSI, and the State read those statements to the court. Aside from the PSI and the victim impact statements, the State did not present any formal evidence in aggravation.
¶ 8 Defendant called Charles Shelquist as his first witness in mitigation. Shelquist testified that he was a member of the United Methodist Church clergy, and had served in Onarga, Illinois, from 1997 to 2004. He became acquainted with defendant when defendant was appointed to the church in Ashkum. Though Shelquist described his relationship with defendant as one of colleagues, he testified that the relationship changed after defendant's arrest: “Upon hearing of his arrest I felt he would probably be feeling isolation and possible disconnect from God so I tried to go see him to see what spiritual care he was receiving because I believe that everybody deserves to have spiritual care.” Shelquist explained that he met with defendant once or twice a month, taking communion, talking about scripture, and praying. Shelquist believed that defendant was sincerely remorseful for committing the offenses in question.
¶ 9 Tammy Biltgen testified that she was the director of youth ministry and Christian education at Trinity United Methodist Church in Wilmette. She testified that she was friends with defendant while the two attended classes together at Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary. She stayed in contact with defendant following his arrest. Biltgen testified that defendant confided in her and another friend that he was a homosexual. Biltgen knew that defendant had pled guilty, but that did not affect her feelings of friendship for him. The parties then stipulated that two further witnesses—both current pastors who attended seminary school with defendant—would give similar testimony to that of Biltgen if called.
¶ 10 Laura Crites testified that she formerly worked as a Methodist pastor at two churches in Iroquois County. She knew defendant both from seminary school and from his time as a pastor in Ashkum. She, too, had remained in contact with defendant after his arrest. Crites opined that defendant lacked the maturity to be the sole pastor at a small-town church. She testified that “if [defendant] did not have the kinds of issues and problems that he ha[d], he would be a gifted pastor the likes of which I have never seen.”
¶ 11 Steven Lobacz testified that he was both a United Methodist minister, as well as a board certified psychiatrist. Defendant had revealed to Lobacz during a therapy session that he was attracted to a boy at his church. Lobacz diagnosed defendant with depression and generalized anxiety disorder
. He opined that defendant would benefit from further therapy in the future. Lobacz believed that defendant was sincere in his remorse.
¶ 12 The parties stipulated that defendant's parents would testify that defendant had never been a source of problems for them and that defendant would be a good candidate for rehabilitation.
¶ 13 In allocution, defendant admitted that he had sexual intercourse with B.B. Though he admitted to having inappropriate sexual contact with C.L., defendant denied engaging in oral or anal intercourse with him. Defendant recalled that he would pick C.L. up on Sunday mornings, then take him home later in the afternoon following church. Occasionally, C.L. would come to defendant's house on Saturday and stay overnight. B.B., too, would sleep over on weekends. Defendant admitted that “[i]n both cases I destroyed their trust and friendship and broke the promises that I made to them, their families, the church, the community and to my friends and family.” Defendant apologized profusely throughout his allocution to the victims, their families, his former congregation, members of the community, and his own family. The themes of prayer, forgiveness, and God's love were recurrent throughout the allocution.
¶ 14 Following arguments, the trial court delivered its remarks, beginning with its consideration of the statutory factors in aggravation and mitigation. The only mitigating factor found by the court was defendant's lack of a criminal history. In aggravation, the court noted that defendant's position of trust was an element of the offense with regard to predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, but not criminal sexual assault. Accordingly, the court considered that aggravating factor only with respect to the second count. The court also found that defendant's conduct threatened serious harm and that a sentence was necessary to deter others from committing the same offense. Moreover, the court found “that the offense did take place in a house of worship or on the grounds of the same.” The court noted that this finding could be considered an aggravating factor, stating that “[it] is not a factor in either one of the charges[,] so it can be considered separately.” The court continued: “I think it's aggravating that these offenses were committed in a church and that you used religion to ensnare your victims.”
¶ 15 After its brief consideration of the statutory factors, the court began an explanation of how it reached a sentence. In total, the trial court's remarks span 13 uninterrupted pages of the report of proceedings. Because of the importance of the court's full remarks to our analysis, we quote those remarks at length:
¶ 16 After stating that it had considered the letters received, including some from ministers, the court explained the role religion played in the...
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