Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault Charges in Illinois

An allegation involving a child under 13 rarely begins with the police. It begins with something the child said to a parent, a teacher, or a counselor, and with the report that followed. By the time a detective calls, the child has usually been interviewed at a children’s advocacy center and the Department of Children and Family Services is often already involved. The charge that follows, predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, is a Class X felony with a range of 6 to 60 years.

Most of these cases arise inside a family or a household: a parent or step-parent, a relative, a parent’s partner, a family friend. The accused person is often the last to learn what was said and the first to be asked to explain it.

Bedi & Singer defends people charged with predatory criminal sexual assault at the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th and California, in Cook County’s suburban courthouses, in the collar counties, and in courts across Illinois.

A person 17 or older commits predatory criminal sexual assault of a child by an act of sexual penetration, or any contact, however slight, between the sex organ or anus of one person and any part of the body of another for sexual gratification, with a child under 13 (720 ILCS 5/11-1.40). Force is not an element and consent is not a defense. The child’s age and the act are the whole charge.

It is a Class X felony, 6 to 60 years, with no probation, and at least 85 percent of the sentence must be served. A firearm adds 15 years, and firing it 20. For a person 18 or older at the time, great bodily harm that leaves a permanent disability or is life threatening carries 50 years to natural life, and natural life is mandatory for offenses against two or more children or for an offense committed after an earlier sexual assault conviction. Registration as a sexual predator is for life.

The lesser charge in the same family is aggravated criminal sexual abuse: sexual conduct, meaning touching or fondling, with a child under 13, a Class 2 felony on which probation is possible, on conditions where the accused is a family member. Much of a predatory case is fought over which of those two charges the evidence actually supports.

The case rests on the child’s account, and Illinois law lets the State put that account before the jury in more than one form: the child’s testimony, and the child’s earlier statements to a parent, a forensic interviewer, or a doctor, where the court finds them reliable after a hearing and the child testifies or is unavailable and the act is corroborated (725 ILCS 5/115-10). The defense examines every version: the first disclosure, the recorded forensic interview, the medical history, and what was said before the interview and by whom.

Who first raised the subject, and how? Was the interview conducted according to protocol, or were the answers suggested? Is there a custody dispute, a separation, or a grievance in the background? Does the medical evidence show anything, and is a normal examination being presented as proof? Bedi & Singer puts those questions to the record, with experts where the case calls for them.

The State may also ask to use other alleged sex offenses by the accused to argue that the person was more likely to have committed this one, a use generally barred in other criminal cases; opposing that evidence is often the most important motion before trial.

Predatory criminal sexual assault is a forcible felony on which the State can petition to deny pretrial release. The hearing is held at the first appearance, or within 48 hours if a continuance is granted. To hold the person as a danger to others, the State must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the case against the person is strong, that the person poses a real and present threat, and that no release conditions can address it. Release, when granted, restricts contact with the child, and often with the rest of the household.

Jonathan Bedi and Dena Singer work on Bedi & Singer’s predatory criminal sexual assault cases together. Every case is prepared as one that may be tried.

An allegation like this cuts a person off from family and home at the moment they most need both. Bedi & Singer keeps the client and the people close to them informed about what is happening and why, from the first police contact on.