Probation, work release on reduced charge in 2012 Aurora University rape case
A Chicago man who was one of three people accused of raping a woman at Aurora University in 2012 pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge as his trial was to begin.
Corderro A. Pollard, 27, formerly of Aurora and now of Chicago, was sentenced to two years of probation and 180 days of work release after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery.
Kane County Judge John Barsanti accepted the plea, which also requires Pollard to undergo a sex offender evaluation and follow any and all recommendations that come from it.
He gets credit for 16 days served in jail while the case was pending and must report to the jail on evenings after work.
Pollard had faced felony criminal sexual assault charges that carried up to 15 years in prison, along with registration as a sex offender, stemming from an incident in August 2012. Pollard and two others - Eric Stallworth Jr., 26, of Chicago and Shammrie M. Brown, 30, of formerly of Aurora and now of Chicago - were charged in October 2012 with sexual assault of a Joliet woman, with whom they went out drinking in Naperville and later headed to the Hollywood Casino in Aurora.
The woman and others eventually made their way back to a home on the Aurora University campus.
Pollard's defense attorney, Michael Fleming, did not return a message Monday.
Fred Morelli, the defense attorney for Brown, said his client was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Morelli said Brown was a guest at the house that night and walked into a room where two men were having sex with the Joliet woman. Morelli said Brown declined to join in but was charged anyway.
"I'm convinced that the only reason Shammrie Brown was charged with a sexual assault is because they wanted him to be a witness," Morelli said, noting Brown quickly became a "pariah" because of the charges and was unable to finish graduate school at Aurora University and lost an internship a state legislator's office. "He was on the fast track to success and they yanked the carpet out from him. He was and is now and extraordinary man."
Prosecutors in late 2012 reduced the felony charges against Brown to misdemeanor battery. Morelli said Brown pleaded guilty to the battery with the agreement he would testify against Pollard and Stallworth if their cases went to trial. Brown will be sentenced to supervision on Sept. 26, Morelli said.
Stallworth, 26, now of Country Club Hills, pleaded guilty in August 2015 to felony unlawful restraint in exchange for prosecutors dismissing the other charges.
Stallworth was sentenced to two years of probation, but prosecutors in June 2017 filed a petition arguing Stallworth violated his probation because he failed to pay the remaining $642 in court fines 60 days before his probation was set to end, according to court records. Stallworth's next court date was not immediately available.