People v. Serrielle

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: STONE
• Citation: People v. Serrielle, 354 Ill. 182, 188 N.E. 375 (Ill. 1933)
• Decision Date: 12 December 1933
• Docket Number: No. 21914.,21914.
• Parties: PEOPLE v. SERRIELLE.

354 Ill. 182

188 N.E. 375

PEOPLE

v.SERRIELLE.

No. 21914.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 21, 1933.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing Dec. 12, 1933.

Error to Criminal Court, Cook County; Philip L. Sullivan, Judge.

Louis Serrielle was convicted of rape, and he brings error.

Reversed and remanded.

Seymour Ellison, of Chicago (Julius Reznik, of Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

Otto Kerner, Atty. Gen., Thomas J. Courtney, State's Atty., of Chicago, and J. J. Neiger, of Springfield (Edward E. Wilson, Grenville Beardsley, and Frank S. Righeimer, Jr., all of Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

STONE, Justice.

Plaintiff in error was convicted in the criminal court of Cook county, on trial without a jury, of the charge of raping one Inez Earl, a widow fifty-eight years of age. Plaintiff in error denies the charge of rape but admits having had intercourse with her. There were no other witnesses as to the actual occurrence, though some witnesses testified to matters occurring before and after the alleged rape.

The undisputed evidence shows that both the complaining witness and the plaintiff in error lived on the sixth floor of an apartment building in the city of Chicago, complaining witness' apartment being near the elevator. The elevator door opened on a balcony, which extended around the large inner court or air shaft. The door to the complaining witness' apartment opened on a narrow hallway leading at right angles from this balcony. A window of her apartment opened on the balcony almost opposite the elevator. This balcony was used by the tenants in going around the court or air shaft to reach the various apartments. Plaintiff in error's apartment was located some distance from the elevator, and in going from that apartment to the elevator it was necessary to pass the window of complaining witness' apartment opening on the balcony. There were twenty-six apartments on the sixth floor of this building. On October 19, 1932, between the hours of 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning, plaintiff in error went into the complaining witness' apartment. As to the occasion of his being there their versions differ. She testified that he without invitation came to her room dressed in his pajamas and a bathrobe. He told her he was lonesome, but that she told him she did not want to talk with him for fear of trouble with another woman with whom the evidence shows plaintiff in error was on friendly terms; that he had liquor, which he drank, but that she refused it, as she did not drink hard liquor; that they talked for a while on matters of politics and the like; that he picked her up, threw her onto the bed, put out the light and ravished her; that in so doing he tore her body, causing it to bleed. She testified that he remained on her for about five minutes, trying to make entry; that he tore her terribly, and that she said to him, ‘Serrielle, I will you,’ and that she pulled his hair; that she then screamed and he put his hand over her mouth; that she hit him, and he told her he would choke her if she hit him again; that she got his hand away from her mouth and jerked away from him; that the elevator came up just then, and when the elevator door opened plaintiff in error jumped from her and ran out. She further testified that when she heard the elevator door open she went out of the room and saw plaintiff in error going toward his room; that in the hall she met the elevator man and lifted her dress above her knees, saying, ‘Look what that dirty beast has done to me!’ On the following evening the complaining witness went to a hospital and was examined and made a complaint against the plaintiff in error.

Plaintiff in error testified concerning the occurrence, that as he left the elevator on the sixth floor and passed the window of complaining witness she was sitting there and called to him. During the conversation that followed she asked him if he had a drink. He replied that he did and went to his apartment, where he prepared to retire, and that she later knocked at his door, saying, ‘You are a nice one to promise a fellow a drink and don't come back with it;’ that he went to her room with her and they both drank liquor and discussed a trip which he had recently taken to New York; that after taking a few drinks they sat on the bed, each with an arm around the other; and that finally both lay on the bed. He testified that she raised no objection to his having intercourse with her, and that after insertion, which he completed with difficulty, she told him she thought he had better get up, as she felt as though she had been torn apart.

Hinsley, the elevator operator, testified that early in the morning of the 19th he heard some one scream; that he was then in the lobby of the first floor; that he could not locate the place from which the scream came, but some one on the court balcony on the fifth floor pointed to the sixth; that he took the elevator to the sixth floor, where he neither heard nor saw anything; that he walked through the back hall into the front of the building and saw plaintiff in error, wearing a bathrobe, coming from the hallway leading to Mrs. Earl's room, and that as he passed the witness plaintiff in error said: ‘Pay no attention to her; she is drunk;’ that complaining witness called him and he walked over to her room but could not remember anythign that she said; and that she showed him the inside of her knee, which was smeared with blood.

Ruth Miller, a tenant on the sixth floor, testified that about 1:15 a. m., October 19, she walked past the room of complaining witness and looked through her window and saw plaintiff in error sitting on the edge of the bed and complaining witness lying on the bed; that each had a glass and were drinking; that both were laughing and seemingly enjoying themselves; and that when she walked past the window on her return to her room the shade was drawn. She further testified that she had seen plaintiff in error and complaining witness together before that time at a party on March 17, 1932, and that complaining witness was drunk.

One Leo McGee testified that complaining witness gave him money and asked him to get her a bottle of liquor, which he did and drank with her in room 501, which was not her room.

One Roberta Robinson testified that on March 17, 1932, complaining witness was intoxicated at a party which they were attending and ‘kept hanging around’ plaintiff in error all evening.

Plaintiff in error's employer, for whom he had worked as chauffeur for over ten years, testified to his good reputation.

In rebuttal, complaining witness categorically denied that she went to plaintiff in error's room to ask him for a drink or that she stopped him at her window; denied that she ever threw her arms around him and kissed him, and also denied that she had had anything to drink at the party on March 17 or had asked McGee to buy liquor for her or drank it with him.

The trial court found plaintiff in error guilty and sentenced him to the penitentiary for a period of twenty-five years.

Plaintiff in error's principal argument is that the evidence of resistance on the part of complaining witness is insufficient to establish the crime of rape; that her credibility was impeached on material matters; that there was no corroboration of...