People v. Wheeler

• Decision Date: 15 October 1992
• Docket Number: No. 72572,72572
• Citation: 176 Ill.Dec. 880,602 N.E.2d 826,151 Ill.2d 298
• Parties: , 176 Ill.Dec. 880, 61 USLW 2298 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Charles A. WHEELER, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 826

602 N.E.2d 826

151 Ill.2d 298, 176 Ill.Dec. 880, 61

USLW 2298

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Charles A. WHEELER, Appellant.

No. 72572.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 15, 1992.

Robert Agostinelli, Deputy Defender, and Mark D. Fisher, Asst. Defender, State Appellate Defender, Ottawa, for appellant.

Roland W. Burris, Atty. Gen., Springfield and Marc Bernabei, State's Atty., Princeton (Norbert J. Goetten, John X. Breslin and Gary F. Gnidovec, of the office of the State's Attys. Appellate Prosecutor, Ottawa, of counsel), for the People.

Justice CLARK delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Charles Wheeler, was indicted for aggravated criminal sexual assault (Ill.Rev.Stat.1989, ch. 38, par. 12-14(b)(1)). After a jury trial in the circuit court of Bureau County, defendant was convicted and sentenced [151 Ill.2d 300] to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. The appellate court, with one justice dissenting, affirmed (216 Ill.App.3d 609, 159 Ill.Dec. 266, 575 N.E.2d 1326) and we granted defendant's petition for leave to appeal (134 Ill.2d R. 315).

In this appeal, defendant raises three issues. First, defendant argues he was denied a fair trial because the trial court denied his motion requesting an order which would have required the victim to submit to a mental examination by defendant's expert. Second, defendant contends the trial court erred in granting the State's motion in limine which prevented defendant from presenting psychological evidence that he did not have traits characteristic of a pedophile. Third, defendant argues his conviction must be reversed due to prosecutorial misconduct. Because of our resolution of the first issue, we need not address the remaining questions presented.

I

Prior to trial, defendant learned that the State intended to introduce expert testimony that the victim, C.K., suffered from rape trauma syndrome. Such testimony is admissible under section 115-7.2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1989, ch. 38, par. 115-7.2). Defendant filed a motion seeking to compel the victim to submit to an examination by defendant's expert or, in the alternative, to bar the State from introducing testimony on rape trauma syndrome. Based on its reading of sections 115-7.1 and 115-7.2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Ill.Rev.Stat.1989, ch. 38, pars. 115-7.1, 115-7.2), the trial court denied defendant's motion. In addition, prior to trial the court found defendant to be indigent and granted $250 of public funds to be used to pay the costs of obtaining an expert witness to testify at trial.

At trial, C.K.'s mother, Cheryl K., testified that she and defendant were married in November 1977 and C.K. was born to them in February 1978. Approximately nine months later, Cheryl and defendant separated and eventually divorced. After the separation, defendant had no contact with C.K. until February 1987. At that time, C.K. called defendant and requested a meeting. After their first meeting, she spent several weekends with defendant at his home. In addition, C.K. spent the summer of 1987 with defendant. During this period, she spoke highly of her father and seemed happy that he was playing a role in her life. Cheryl stated that on several occasions C.K. expressed a desire to live with defendant.

Cheryl testified that C.K. went to summer camp in the summer of 1988 and there was no personal contact between defendant and her from June 1988 to January 1989. In December 1988, C.K. asked to see her father again. According to Cheryl, C.K. visited defendant on two or three weekends in January 1989. Cheryl was unsure about the dates of the visits although she believed one of the weekends coincided with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Cheryl stated that C.K. continued to visit defendant until Easter of 1989, but that the last time she was alone with defendant was in January or February of 1989. On the weekends of visits, defendant picked up C.K. on either Friday night or Saturday morning and returned her on Sunday night.

On July 14, 1989, Cheryl suggested to her that she spend part of the summer with defendant. At this time, C.K. began to cry and told Cheryl that defendant had sexually assaulted her. Cheryl then called the authorities in Iowa to report the assault.

The victim, who was 11 years old at the time of the trial, testified that she first met defendant in February of 1987. She stated that two or three weeks after they met, defendant sexually abused her. At this time, defendant was living with his girlfriend, Cathy Cannon. C.K. stated that she may have told the police that the abuse did not begin until June of 1987, at a time when Cannon and defendant were not seeing each other. She also stated that she slept in defendant's bed almost every night that summer.

C.K. stated that she reinitiated contact with defendant in December of 1988 because she hoped he had changed and stated that she visited defendant two or three times in January of 1989. She thought the last time she was alone with defendant was the weekend of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. She stated that during this visit, defendant told her to sleep in his bed. Defendant got into bed with her and was naked at the time. Defendant kissed C.K. on the cheek and placed his tongue in her mouth. Defendant removed her underwear and rubbed her vagina. Defendant then held C.K.'s legs apart and performed oral sex on her. Defendant rolled onto his back and had C.K. lie on top of him with her head near his groin. C.K. refused defendant's request that she put his penis in her mouth but she did squeeze it. C.K. described defendant's penis as hairy and stiff, and she stated that sticky stuff came out. When this occurred, she stated, the defendant was breathing heavily "like a dog does after it gets done running." Throughout the ordeal, defendant told the victim that the acts were practice for when she got older and also that she reminded him of her mother.

The victim testified that defendant had assaulted her in a similar fashion on one or two other weekends in January 1989. She also testified that defendant told her not to tell anyone about the assault because he would go to prison. She stated she did not tell anyone initially because she was afraid.

Elsie (Pat) Elmore, an investigator with the Iowa Department of Human Services, testified that on July 14, 1989, she responded to a call from Cheryl. Elmore interviewed Cheryl and C.K. The victim's statements to Elmore were substantially consistent with the her testimony at trial. C.K. told Elmore the abuse began the first time she visited defendant.

Pamela Klein, a psychotherapist, testified that she interviewed the victim at the request of the State's Attorney. Based solely on this interview, Klein determined that she had symptoms consistent with rape trauma syndrome. Klein explained that rape trauma syndrome is a subcategory of post-traumatic stress syndrome. According to Klein, rape trauma syndrome refers to a cluster of psychological symptoms common to victims of sexual assault.

Gary Swanson, an investigator with the Princeton police department, testified that he interviewed C.K. and Cheryl on July 19, 1989. At that time C.K. told Swanson that she had spent the summer of 1988 with defendant at his home in Princeton. She also told Swanson that during that summer she slept in defendant's bed most nights. C.K. described the incidents of sexual abuse and demonstrated using anatomically correct dolls. The descriptions were consistent with her trial testimony. She stated that the abuse occurred on three weekends in January 1989, including the weekends of December 31, 1988, January 14, 1989, and January 28, 1989.

Defendant's former girlfriend, Cathy Cannon, testified that she lived with defendant from June of 1986 through the fall of 1987. Cannon was present when C.K. first met defendant and during her subsequent trips between February and June of 1987. Cannon testified that the victim could not have slept in defendant's bed during these visits because, except for the first night in February, Cannon slept with defendant. Cannon testified that defendant was a good father who took an interest in his daughter's health, appearance and education. Cannon related an incident in which the victim admitted that, on her mother's instructions, the victim lied to a landlord about whether she lived in an apartment with her mother.

Defendant testified that he met the victim at his nephew's wedding on February 14, 1987. From that time to the end of June 1987, the victim spent approximately every other weekend with defendant at his home in Princeton. The victim also spent the summer of 1987 with defendant and Cannon. Defendant testified that during this entire period he and Cannon were living and sleeping together. After the summer of 1987, defendant saw the victim occasionally, but she never spent the night alone with him. Defendant denied that the victim visited him in January 1989. Defendant denied that he ever had sexual contact with the victim.

Some time after the victim initiated contact with defendant, Cheryl and defendant resumed a relationship. Defendant stated that in early 1989 they were thinking about remarrying. However, according to defendant, after spending time together at Easter 1989, defendant ended that relationship. In May or June of 1989, defendant and Cheryl argued over a tax refund check which defendant believed had been garnished by Cheryl. Defendant later learned that Cheryl had nothing to do with the garnishment. During this argument defendant denied being the victim's father. When defendant subsequently called to speak with the victim, Cheryl stated the victim did not want to talk to defendant because of this comment.

Numerous alibi witnesses testified to defendant's whereabouts during each weekend in January 1989, and that the victim was not present at defendant's home at these times. Some of these...