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Victim in Wheeling rape case describes attack

A description of what prosecutors called “every woman's worst nightmare” marked Tuesday's start of Matthew Schaffer's trial on charges of rape, home invasion and armed robbery.

In his opening statement, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Andre detailed the violent sexual assault authorities say the 31-year-old physician endured at the hands of Schaffer, whom Andre characterized as “a stranger, lurking in the shadows, slithering up to her as she slept in her bed.”

Schaffer is accused of breaking into the Wheeling condominium where the woman was staying with friends last year and demanding money and valuables. Prosecutors said he brandished a gun and held the woman at knife-point, then handcuffed and sexually assaulted her before fleeing with $100, the woman's wedding band and her Cartier watch, among other items.

What began as a visit with family and friends “turned in an instant into the worst experience of this young woman's life,” Andre said.

Defense attorneys rejected prosecutors' version of the events of May 23, 2010, claiming the sex was consensual and that Schaffer and the woman knew each other. Prosecutors say the woman, who lives in another state, did not know the defendant.

Defense attorney Darryl Goldberg called his client “an innocent person falsely accused of something he did not do” and described the woman as deceitful and manipulative with “eccentric sexual tastes.”

The woman testified she and two female friends went to Chicago that evening to catch up over dinner, then went to two nightspots before she and her friend returned about 2:20 a.m. to the Wheeling condo where the friend and her husband lived.

Speaking softly, the woman described waking up to find a man in her bedroom, wearing rubber gloves and a mask made of pantyhose and brandishing a 2-inch-long knife and a small gun, which police later found to be a replica.

She said the man handcuffed her and said, “Don't make a noise or I will kill you.”

The defendant raped her and repeatedly threatened to kill her, she said.

After the man left, the woman woke her friend and her friend's husband and told them what had happened.

“I was an emotional mess,” said the woman, who said she begged her friends not to call police because the attacker had seen her driver's license and knew where she lived. “I couldn't talk. I was shaking. I couldn't compose myself.”

Defense attorney Ralph Meczyk questioned her description of the attacker and suggested the two knew each other and that the woman bought marijuana from Schaffer, a restaurant worker.

“No,” the woman said vehemently, looking shocked. “I've never had a previous encounter with this person.” As testimony concluded Tuesday, the husband of the woman's friend testified that later that morning, he noticed the screen to a sliding door, which he had locked the night before, was sliced open near the handle.

Testimony continues Wednesday in Rolling Meadows.