Sex offender convicted of window peeping

Cook County Judge Hyman Riebman said he gave a lot of thought to why Kurt Hauser could have been crouched in the bushes on a late summer night last year, peering into a stranger's Palatine bedroom.

And the only reason he can come up with, Riebman said, is an incriminating one.

Hauser "wasn't there by mistake," Riebman said Friday. "He looked in that window specifically to watch a woman in her bedroom."

His words came moments before he convicted Hauser -- a 34-year-old Palatine man who's already served prison time for a 1999 sex assault -- of disorderly conduct for the Aug. 13 peeping incident.

The crime is considered a misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of 364 days.

Hauser, who's been held on $1.5 million bond since his mid-August arrest, has served nearly half that time already.

His attorneys argued that means he's already served as much as he can, counting in day-for-day jail time credit.

Riebman will take up the sentencing issue Monday.

Hauser was arrested last August on several disorderly conduct charges related to alleged window peeping.

He was tried this week on just one of them, which accused him of peeking into a South Greeley Street apartment near his own home at 212 E. Palatine Road.

Prosecutors say Hauser hid in the bushes under the window and peered in as a 40-year-old woman undressed.

He was caught by the husband, Berardino Gomez, who said he was tending to the trash when he saw Hauser leaning in so close his head nearly touched the pane.

He was caught later by police as he crawled toward his front door in dark clothing.

Police said Hauser admitted the crime but he also partly blamed the woman, saying she had piqued his interest.

"It's not her fault," Assistant State's Attorney Adam Klugman said. "It's his fault, for acting on his desires."

Assistant Public Defender Natalie Fredrickson argued there was no evidence Hauser was peering in for a lewd reason -- something prosecutors had to prove -- and said just looking into somebody's window is not illegal.

"People look in windows. People look when something catches their eye. It's not a crime," Fredrickson said.

She cited timing issues she said didn't match up, noting Gomez's wife testified she'd gotten out of the bath and been dressed by 10:40 p.m., but the 911 call -- placed, according to testimony, right after Hauser was seen -- came in around 11:30 p.m.

Fredrickson said there's no evidence, then, that Hauser actually saw her undressed, or saw anyone inside at all.

But, Assistant State's Attorney Matt Fakhoury said in closing, "he peered into that window for a sexual purpose. It's that simple, That's what a lewd purpose is."