Elk Grove wife testifies at husband's sexual assault trial

The wife of a man charged with sexually assaulting her 27-year-old friend testified on her husband's behalf Wednesday as the trial of William Rouse entered its second day.

Kelly Rouse, who was also a co-worker of the 27-year-old, described the woman as “loopy” during a get-together at the couple's Elk Grove Village home on the night of Sept. 10, 2010. Rouse said the woman was intoxicated and claimed both of them drank wine and snorted Adderall several times over the course of the evening. Adderall is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The 27-year-old testified earlier that she has prescriptions for Adderall and for anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications. She testified that she took only the prescribed dosage on the night she claimed William Rouse, 30, assaulted her after his wife had gone to bed and another guest, Joe Perez, had left the home. The woman said she tried to fight him off but claimed he threatened her saying, “I'll snap your neck.”

The woman broke free and ran, barefoot and without her purse or phone, to the intersection of Devon Avenue and Arlington Heights Road where good samaritan Anthony DiCaro stopped to help her.

Perez backed up Kelly Rouse's story, admitting that he too snorted Adderall that evening. Neither Kelly Rouse nor Perez reported William Rouse using any drugs that evening.

Perez, who admitted drinking vodka, described the 27-year-old as “pretty intoxicated” and said she sounded “incoherent” when she called him on his cell phone an hour before the alleged attack. James Khmelik, the first Elk Grove Village officer on the scene, testified that he detected an odor of alcohol on the woman and believed she was intoxicated.

Perez and Rouse both testified they never told police about the drug use and Elk Grove Village officers confirmed that they did not inquire about illicit drugs.

“It wasn't a drug case, it was a rape case,” testified lead detective George Winkler, who said the woman told him she had consumed four to six glasses of wine throughout the evening.

Testifying for the defense as an expert in the field of clinical psychology, Dr. Alan Michael Jaffe, a professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said that someone using Adderall, anti-anxiety medication and anti-depressants together would “experience a high.” Jaffee also testified that the medications could “alter (an individual's) consciousness” making him or her unable to “engage in rational thinking” and could cause delusions and hallucinations.

Emergency room personnel who treated the woman testified she did not suffer from either when they examined her. Prosecutors acknowledged that doctors did not perform toxicology tests on the woman and that no DNA linked the defendant to the woman.

Closing argument are scheduled to begin Thursday in Rolling Meadows.