Judge comes to his senses

[Soxy]

Good.

 

Alleged rape victim won’t have to view tape

 

Tribune staff reports

Published March 1, 2006, 1:03 PM CST

 

A Cook County judge today backed off from his threat to send a woman to jail if she refused to view a videotape of her alleged rape, CLTV reported.

 

In court today, Judge Kerry Kennedy ruled the witness can continue her testimony without viewing the tape, CLTV reported. He also refused a defense request to dismiss the charges against the suburban man accused of sexually assaulting her.

 

On Tuesday, Kennedy had said he would hold the woman in contempt of court if she would not view the tape when the trial resumed today, prompting a lawyer for the defense to request that the case be dismissed.

 

The judge's action angered victims' rights advocates, and a group of lawyers worked overnight to prepare an argument to present to the judge this morning, according to Lyn Schollett, general counsel for the Springfield-based Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

 

"The court cannot knowingly inflict this kind of distress on a victim," Schollett said.

 

She said the group of attorneys argued in a legal pleading that making the woman watch the tape was an invasion of privacy under Illinois law and irrelevant to the case.

 

The Naperville woman was 16 years old when she allegedly was assaulted and videotaped four years ago at a party in the Burr Ridge home of Adrian Missbrenner, 20.

 

He was one of four men charged in connection with the incident, and his trial on charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and child pornography began Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, Bridgeview. He faces 6 to 30 years in prison if convicted.

 

George Acosta, the attorney representing the woman in a civil case against Missbrenner's family, said she has never viewed the video and has stated repeatedly that she did not want to.

 

The woman has said she did not know Missbrenner before going to his home with a girlfriend in the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 2002.

 

She has testified that she woke up in Missbrenner's house the next morning, naked from the waist down with vulgar words written on her legs with a marker.

 

She said she went home and cried, and learned later that she had been videotaped. Accompanied by several friends, she went back to the Burr Ridge home and asked for the tape, but Missbrenner denied it existed, she said.

 

Her parents then took her to a hospital, and police were called.

 

Several days later, Cook County police obtained the videotape from a friend of Missbrenner's, who said Missbrenner had given it to him.

 

Missbrenner's attorney, Patrick Campanelli, said Missbrenner was concerned the girl was going to claim that the sex was not consensual so he gave the tape to the friend to save, if needed, to support his claim.

 

The videotape was viewed in the March 2005 trial of Christopher Robbins of Brookfield, who was acquitted of sex charges after arguing she consented to sex with him in an incident that wasn't videotaped. Robbins allegedly is seen on one segment of the tape, but not engaging in sex with the woman.

 

Prosecutors allege that the videotape first shows another defendant, Burim Berezi of Brookfield, having sex with the woman, then it shows Missbrenner. They say the tape shows her unconscious as people spit on her and write derogatory words on her naked legs and abdomen.

 

Berezi fled the country after being charged and remains at large. Missbrenner also fled but returned from Europe in May 2005. A jury convicted him of violating his bail bond, and he was sentenced to six months in jail, which has been served while he was being held without bail on the sex charges.

 

The fourth defendant, Sonny Smith, 20, of Brookfield, who operated the camera, pleaded guilty to child pornography and was sentenced to the Illinois Department of Corrections boot camp.

[Steff]

I don't even understand why he was an ass to start with. :headshake

 

Now, keep this trial focused and make sure this jerkoff doesn't get off on some mistake.