People v. Robinson

• Decision Date: 22 December 1978
• Docket Number: Nos. 77-342,77-1089,s. 77-342
• Parties: , 24 Ill.Dec. 95 PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ricky ROBINSON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 962

384 N.E.2d 962

67 Ill.App.3d 539, 24 Ill.Dec. 95

PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ricky ROBINSON, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 77-342, 77-1089.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Fifth Division.

Dec. 22, 1978.

Ralph Ruebner, Deputy State Appellate Defender, Patricia Unsinn, Asst. State Appellate Defender, Chicago, for defendant-appellant.

Bernard Carey, State's Atty., Chicago (Lee T. Hettinger, Carol A. Kearney, Thomas Bucaro, Asst. State's Attys., Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellee.

WILSON, Justice:

After a bench trial, defendant was found guilty of rape (Ill.Rev.Stat.1973, ch. 38, par. 11-1) and sentenced to not less than four years and no more than four years and a day in the penitentiary. On appeal, the following issues are raised: (1) Whether defendant was proven guilty of rape beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) whether defendant's Sixth Amendment right to cross-examine witnesses was violated when the court refused to allow defendant to impeach the complaining witness with a transcript of her testimony at a preliminary hearing; (3) whether defendant was denied a fair trial where the record indicates that the trial judge was either unsure or could not remember important evidentiary facts; (4) whether defendant's Fifth Amendment right to remain silent was violated; (5) whether the cross-examination of defendant as to his opinion of the veracity of the State's witnesses constitutes prejudicial error; and (6) whether the assumption of unsupported facts by the prosecutor in his cross-examination of defendant constitutes prejudicial error. We affirm on all points.

Phyllis Ham, the complainant, testified that late in the evening on September 5, 1975, she and a group of her girl friends went to the Roadrunner Lounge at 75th and Phillips. While there, she danced once or twice with Michael Armour but she did not have anything to drink. At approximately 3:00 a. m., she began having chest pains. She asked one of her girl friends to drive her home, but the girl could not get her car started. After failing to find a cab, she asked another friend, Tiny, if he could drive her home. He said that he could not leave the lounge until it closed, but that he would find someone else to drive her home. Armour, who was a friend of Tiny's, offered to drive her home. He said that he would take her home after he had first taken defendant home.

When they arrived at defendant's building, Armour got out of the car and told complainant that he was going upstairs to get something. She said that she would wait for him in the car. However, after he told her that he would only take a few minutes and that it would be unsafe for her to remain in the car, she decided to go upstairs too.

After they had entered defendant's apartment, defendant and Armour went into the bathroom. When they returned, they were smoking a reefer. After turning down Armour's requests that she join them, she asked him to take her home. He refused and she got ready to leave on her own. Armour then took her purse and refused to return it to her until he was ready to leave. Complainant then made an attempt to leave the apartment, but the door was locked. While she was trying to unlock the door, Armour grabbed her from behind and tried to make her sit down. She asked him to let her go, but he refused. He then called the defendant saying, "We got a wild one here * * * come on * * * and help me." Defendant came over and held her while Armour began taking off her clothes. She struggled to get free but Armour threatened to "rough her up" unless she cooperated. Armour and defendant then forced her onto a bed, where Armour began hitting her. He struck her five or six times on the face, arms, and legs. He managed to rip off the rest of her clothes and told defendant to leave. Armour then had intercourse with her.

After he was through, Armour called out to defendant telling him to come out of the bathroom because he needed to use it. Complainant then began picking up her clothes and tried to leave. However, she could not unlock the door. She said that there were at least two locks on the door. On cross-examination, she testified that she did not pay any attention to the number of the locks on the door, and that she guessed that the door locked from the inside with the same key used to open the door from the outside. While standing at the door, defendant came out of the bathroom naked and asked her where she thought she was going. When she said that she was leaving, he said that she was not going anywhere. They then began to fight and defendant punched her in the nose, causing some bleeding. He then forced her to bed and forced his penis into her vagina. He told her that even though it was not his idea and he did not want to hurt her, he had to go along with Armour. She testified that she had not seen the actual penetration but that she knew that he could not have been using his finger because both of his hands were being used to hold down her arms.

A few minutes later, Armour returned and told defendant that he had to leave. Complainant began to dress and had gotten all her clothes on, except for one of her shoes, when she again tried to leave. Armour told her to stop and that he would take her home. She said that she did not want to go with him. He then asked her whether she thought they should kill her. She said that it did not matter because she wished she were dead. Armour then said that he was not going to let her leave because he wanted to teach her a lesson. Despite this warning, she tried to leave. When it looked like Armour and defendant were going to stop her, she threw some object at them. She believed that she hit defendant. On cross-examination, she testified that when she left the apartment defendant did not try to prevent her from leaving because he was in the bathroom.

While Armour was checking to see if defendant was injured, complainant managed to get out the door. She ran 40 feet to an elevator and closed the door just before Armour caught up with her. She took the elevator to the first floor and ran out the building. She said that she thought Armour was running behind her. She ran, with shoe in hand, across the street to her cousin's apartment, which was just four buildings down the block. She rang the doorbell and first her cousin's husband and then her cousin answered. They called the police. Later that evening, complainant went to a hospital.

Barbara Garland, the complainant's cousin, testified that at approximately 4:00 a. m. on September 6, 1975, she heard her doorbell ringing. She described the ringing as "a hysterical type of ringing of my bell three or four times in a row." She answered the door and found her cousin, the complainant, in a distraught condition. She was breathing very hard and her clothes were in disarray. She was also carrying one of her shoes in her hand. Complainant told Garland that she had just been raped by two men. When Garland noticed her continuously looking behind her, she asked her if she was being followed. Although she did not see anyone, Garland told her to come in out of the hallway and then called the police.

Leo Dorociak, a Chicago police officer, testified that he arrested defendant on September 7, 1975, in his apartment. During the arrest, defendant's wife was present. At that time, defendant denied the rape and said that he never had any woman in his apartment. Later, at the police station, defendant gave a different statement to the police. He said that complainant was present in his apartment. He said that Armour told him that she was a freak and that she liked to be slapped around while she was having sexual intercourse. He said that he was in the bathroom while Armour was having intercourse with her, and that he only came out when Armour told him, "You can have her now." He then grabbed her and held her down while having intercourse with her. He stopped when he couldn't maintain an erection. He said that he couldn't maintain an erection because he knew that she was not willing and also he felt that he was doing something wrong.

On cross-examination, Dorociak was shown his police report from that day. The report failed to mention any statement by Armour that complainant was a freak. It did not state that defendant knew that she was not willing, although it did say that defendant "pulled" her down. Also, the statement indicated only that defendant "tried" to have intercourse but that he could not maintain an erection.

Defendant testified that he and Armour went to the Roadrunner Lounge at around midnight on September 5, 1975. He said that his wife was out of town on that night. While he was at the lounge, he spent his time dancing and having a couple of drinks. Armour spent most of the time dancing or talking with the complainant. When they left, the complainant came with them. Defendant testified that he had no conversation with Armour about taking her home.

When they arrived at defendant's building, he did not say anything to either Armour or complainant about coming up to his apartment. On cross-examination, he said that he was curious as to why they were coming with him, but he did not ask them. After they had arrived in the apartment, Armour and he smoked some marijuana. During this time, the complainant sat on the couch and said that she wanted to go home. He testified that there were two locks on the inside of the door to his apartment, but that neither of them was locked. He said that if somebody wanted to open the door, all they had to do was to turn the doorknob.

Five minutes after entering the apartment, defendant went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Fifteen minutes later, Armour called him out of the bathroom. He told defendant that "he could have her." Defendant came out of the bathroom wearing his shorts and jeans. He took off his clothes and then got on top of the complainant. He said that he stuck his finger in her...