Sexual Assault Defense in Chicago and Across Illinois

A sexual assault case usually begins with an accusation by someone the person knows: a partner or former partner, a date, a co-worker, a relative. The first sign may be a detective’s call asking for the person’s side of it, or an arrest. The charge that follows, criminal sexual assault, is a Class 1 felony with no probation, and the State can ask that the person be held until trial.

By the time the charge is filed, the State usually has the accuser’s account, the messages between the two people, any medical examination, and whatever the person said when the police called. The defense starts there.

Bedi & Singer defends people charged with 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.

Illinois charges criminal sexual assault in four situations: sexual penetration by force or the threat of force; penetration of a person the accused knew could not understand the act or give knowing consent; penetration of a family member under 18; and penetration by a person 17 or older who held a position of trust, authority, or supervision over a victim of 13 to 17 (720 ILCS 5/11-1.20). It is a Class 1 felony, 4 to 15 years, with no probation. Where force or inability to consent is charged and an adult’s offense came after an earlier sexual assault conviction, the range is 30 to 60 years, or natural life where the earlier conviction was aggravated or predatory criminal sexual assault. A second family-member or position-of-trust conviction is a Class X felony.

Aggravated criminal sexual assault is the same act with an aggravating circumstance: a weapon, bodily harm, a threat to the victim’s life, another felony in progress, a victim 60 or older or with a physical disability, or a drug given without consent. Penetration of a person with a severe or profound intellectual disability is aggravated criminal sexual assault on its own. It is a Class X felony, 6 to 30 years; a dangerous weapon adds 10 years, and a firearm 15 or more (720 ILCS 5/11-1.30). For an adult, a second aggravated criminal sexual assault conviction, or one after an earlier criminal sexual assault or predatory conviction, carries natural life. At least 85 percent of either sentence must be served, followed by supervised release of three years to natural life.

A conviction for either also requires registration as a sexual predator for life, a consequence that weighs as much as the sentence in every decision about a plea.

Where force or the threat of force is charged, consent is a defense. Illinois defines consent as a freely given agreement to the act; submission brought on by force is not consent, and consent can be withdrawn. Most adult sexual assault cases come down to whether the State can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was no consent, a question answered by two people’s accounts and the record around them.

That record is usually larger than either side expects: the messages before and after, location and rideshare data, the timing of the report, and the medical examination, including what the DNA does and does not show. Bedi & Singer builds the defense from that record, with investigators and forensic experts where the case calls for them.

Two rules shape these trials. The rape shield statute keeps the accuser’s other sexual history out of evidence, except prior conduct with the accused offered on consent, or where the Constitution requires it, and only after a hearing. And in a sex offense case the State may 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. Keeping that evidence out is often the most important motion in the case.

Criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual assault are forcible felonies 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. Bedi & Singer prepares for that hearing as for a trial.

Anything the person said to a detective before the charge is in the file. A statement given to clear things up can become the State’s best evidence, and whether it was taken lawfully is the subject of a motion to suppress. Illinois sets no time limit on charging these offenses, so an allegation can surface years later.

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

An accusation of this kind reaches a person’s family, work, and reputation before it reaches a courtroom. Bedi & Singer keeps the client and the people close to them informed about what is happening and why, and makes every decision, including whether to try the case to a judge or a jury, with the client.