People v. Ulrich

• Decision Date: 26 November 1963
• Docket Number: No. 37891,37891
• Citation: 195 N.E.2d 180,30 Ill.2d 94
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v. Robert ULRICH, Plaintiff in Error.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 180

195 N.E.2d 180

30 Ill.2d 94

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, v. Robert ULRICH, Plaintiff in Error.

No. 37891.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 26, 1963.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 20, 1964.

Bellows, Bellows & Magidson, Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., Springfield, and Daniel P. Ward, State's Atty., Chicago, (Fred G. Leach and E. Michael O'Brien, Asst. Attys. Gen., and Elmer C. Kissane and William J. Martin, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for defendant in error.

SOLFISBURG, Justice.

A jury in the criminal court of Cook County found defendant, Robert Ulrich, guilty of taking indecent liberties with Lenora Gunneson, an 8-year-old child. After judgment and sentence of 8 to 12 years in the penitentiary he now seeks reversal of the trial court judgment urging (1) insufficiency of evidence, (2) error in admitting evidence of another offense of which he was acquitted and (3) error in admitting testimony of a former police officer concerning the defendant's reputation for truth and veracity at a time 12 years prior to trial.

Two indictments were returned against the defendant; the first charging that on September 18, 1959, he took indecent liberties with a child, Loretta D'Aquilla, the second charging similar acts with Lenora Gunneson. The acts charged in both indictments occurred at the same time and place; the witnesses in both cases were the same. He was first tried and acquitted by a jury in the charge relating to Loretta D'Aquilla. In both cases the defendant claimed mistaken identification.

In this case Mrs. D'Aquilla testified that about 5 o'clock in the afternoon on September 18, 1959, her children were playing with other children in front of their home; that she saw the defendant with a white poodle and the children; that the children asked if they might go for a walk around the block with the man; that she gave her consent and her daughter Loretta came back about 20 minutes later. After talking with Loretta, she then went to see her neighbor Mr. Gunneson. After that she talked to Sergeant Krause at the police station. The next day she went to the police station with Lenora Gunneson and saw the defendant with a white poodle. Sergeant Krause had called her on September 19 and told her that he had a man he wanted her to look at and to bring Lenora Gunneson with her. The Gunneson girl and Mrs. D'Aquilla went into a room at the police station where they identified the defendant who was alone with the dog.

Lenora Gunneson testified she was 10 years of age and in the fourth grade. She was playing with Loretta and the other children in front of the D'Aquilla home and saw a man with a white poodle. They followed the man around the block and stopped in front of a house that was under construction. The man unlocked the door and they went into a bedroom which had a closet with a sliding door. The man picked her up, lifted her dress and pulled her tights down and then pulled them up. She walked out of the closet and saw Loretta holding the poodle. Loretta then handed her the poodle and Loretta went into the closet with the man. On cross-examination she stated that the next day she was told by Mrs. D'Aquilla that they had arrested the man with the dog. At the police station Sergeant Krause had told them that they had arrested the man with the poodle and that he was the man who was supposed to have done the act.

Loretta, who testified over defendant's objection, stated she was 6 1/2 years old at the time of the incident and 8 years old at the time of trial. She had been the complaining witness in the case in which the defendant was found not guilty. Her testimony was basically the same as that of the Gunneson girl, stating that the man and Lenora went into a closet, that the man picked up Lenora and put her in the attic, when she got down she gave the poodle to Lenora and then she and the man went into the closet. He pulled down his underpants and hers and wiped wet Kleenex between her legs. He then pulled up her pants and when she heard her mother calling, she ran home.

Sergeant Krause, of the Lincolnwood police, stated Mrs. D'Aquilla saw him on the evening of September 18. He then made an investigation and saw defendant on September 19 at his home, asked him where he had been the night before, and defendant told him he had been to a dance at a hotel with a girl. He saw a white poodle at his feet and then took defendant to the police station. The same day he took Mrs. D'Aquilla and the Gunneson girl to a room in the station where the defendant was sitting with his dog.

The defendant testified he lived with his mother and brother, had an apricot-colored poodle, had worked at Bell and Howell on the day in question from 7 o'clock in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon, arrived home about 3:45 P.M. and took his dog out for a walk. He denied owning a red shirt, which had been identified by other witnesses, and also denied molesting any children or taking any children into a house under construction. He stated that he had not been out of the house for more than 5 minutes with the dog, did not leave the house that night, did not go to a dance, and denied telling Sergeant Krause that he had been to a dance the night before. He stated that he saw Mrs. D'Aquilla and the Gunneson girl at the police station and that neither one identified him.

Harry Larson, a State's witness, testified on rebuttal that he was presently employed as a security officer at the Conrad Hilton Hotel, had been a police officer in Chicago for 36 years, believed defendant lived on the north side of the city between 1949 and 1950 and that during that time he had occasion to know where defendant lived. He stated that he had been assigned to the Shakespeare Avenue police station, had occasion to know the reputation of the defendant, prior to the incident, for truth and veracity was bad. On cross-examination he stated that he had met defendant in about 1950, did not meet him from 1945 to 1949, did not meet him from 1951 to 1961, and did not know where he lived in 1959 and 1960. He did not talk to anyone about the defendant in 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961.

The defendant's contention that the evidence is not sufficient to sustain the judgment of conviction is based upon the identification of the defendant. He contends that the identification by Lenora Gunneson and Mrs. D'Aquilla was influenced by the police officer who told them that the man who supposedly molested the children was in custody, and that the identification was further influenced by having them view the defendant alone in a room. It is true that where conviction of the crime of indecent liberties is based upon the testimony of the child, the evidence must be corroborated or must be otherwise clear and convincing. (People v. Williams, 414 Ill. 414, ...