Judge: Drug evidence stays in Kildeer rape case
A Lake County judge refused Wednesday to throw out drug evidence discovered in the Kildeer house of a man on trial for rape after defense attorneys claimed it was found illegally.
Lawyers for Ryan Burke, 30, who is also charged with possession of the date rape drug GHB, claimed police used false information to obtain a search warrant for the house.
A woman said she was raped by Burke while attending a party at his house May 30, 2006, after she had a severe reaction to the alcohol she drank and the marijuana she smoked and then blacked out.
Although the victim went to a hospital after leaving the house in the 2100 block of Valley Drive, no toxicology tests were ever done on her blood to determine if she had been given GHB.
But police did find a small bottle containing GHB somewhere in Burke's house after obtaining the search warrant.
Former Kildeer police officer Susan Jackson was the lead detective on the case, and wrote a report about what the victim told her had happened. In that report, Jackson wrote the victim told her Burke gave her the marijuana she smoked outside his house shortly before she began blacking out.
However, the victim testified Tuesday she brought the marijuana to Burke's house and never told Jackson that Burke had given it to her.
In her own testimony Wednesday, Jackson confirmed the report was in error, and it formed the basis for the search warrant issued for Burke's house.
At the end of her testimony, defense attorney Sam Amirante of Palatine told Associate Judge George Bridges the GHB found in the house should be inadmissible at the trial.
Amirante argued because false information was used to convince a judge to sign the warrant, any evidence found should be excluded.
But Bridges said the reference to the marijuana in Jackson's report, even though incorrect, was not damaging enough to the overall credibility to make the search illegal.
Burke faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. Testimony in the trial is expected to continue today.