CLC student charged with false rape report pleads not guilty

A College of Lake County student who police say falsely accused an instructor of raping her pleaded not guilty Thursday in Lake County circuit court.

Antoinette Taylor, 38, faces up to three years in prison if convicted of felony disorderly conduct.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Bolling Haxall said Taylor, of 309 Glenwood Drive, Round Lake, originally went to campus police and said she had been sexually assaulted by the instructor.

Taylor told police the instructor, who has not been identified publicly, attacked her in a classroom on the Grayslake campus in early March.

CLC police contacted Grayslake police for assistance in the investigation. Police took DNA samples, gathered other evidence and conducted several interviews.

Some of the evidence collected contradicted Taylor's story, police said, and she admitted she had fabricated the story about the rape in mid-May.

The instructor was suspended after Taylor made the report, and his contract was not renewed for the 2008-09 school year.

CLC officials said after a closed-door meeting in July they were standing by their decision not to renew the teacher's contract, but the decision was unrelated to the false allegation or his job performance.

Associate Judge Theodore Potknojak scheduled a trial of the case for Jan. 5, and ordered Taylor to appear in court Nov. 14.