Judge finds former football player guilty of sexual assault
A Cook County judge on Thursday found former Glenbard West High School football player Demarco Whitley guilty of raping a 15-year-old Rolling Meadows girl last year.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that sex occurred and there’s no doubt it occurred the way the victim said it did,” said Judge Thomas Fecarotta, who called Whitley’s testimony “not only unbelievable but poorly contrived.”
Fecarotta announced his finding to a Rolling Meadows courtroom crowd that included the victim and her mother, who cried and embraced upon hearing the verdict. Also present were about 25 of Whitley’s friends and family members, who hugged and sobbed in a hallway outside the courtroom after the bench trial concluded.
Cook County sheriff’s deputies immediately took Whitley, 19, into custody. He had been attending College of DuPage while out on bond after his arrest, but now faces 16 to 60 years in prison. He next appears in court on Nov. 1.
“We hope, more than anything, that this finding of guilty helps (the victim) to realize this was not her fault and the only person to blame is the defendant,” said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Maria McCarthy, the lead prosecutor.
The girl, now a 17-year-old high school senior, testified that she blamed herself for getting into the car with Pierre Washington-Steel, an acquaintance she considered a friend, who called her at about 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2010, and asked if she wanted to hang out. After she agreed, Washington-Steel drove to her Rolling Meadows home with Whitley, his friend and football teammate. Washington-Steel drove the trio to a Rolling Meadows church parking lot where he and Whitley — who the girl had never met — sexually assaulted her.
About 80 minutes after the attack, the boys were involved in a car crash. Washington-Steel, who prosecutors described as a deceased co-offender, died from his injuries. Whitley recovered and was linked to the assault through his DNA, which authorities recovered from the scene and the victim.
Throughout the trial Whitley — who testified unsuccessfully in his own defense — insisted the sex was consensual and that police and prosecutors fabricated part of his statement and misstated his responses to their questions.
“We’re disappointed,” said defense attorney Donna Rotunno. “This was tough for everyone involved. I don’t think anybody wins.”
“From the beginning, Demarco Whitley maintained those were not his words,” said Rotunno, referring to the statements in which police and prosecutors say he implicated himself.
Referring to Fecarotta’s comments about his testimony, Rotunno attributed Whitley’s performance on the witness stand to stress and fear.
“Demarco Whitley is a teenager. He had never been on the witness stand in the past,” she said. “He was nervous, scared and afraid up there.”
In closing statements, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Kristin Piper praised the victim’s courage in testifying about the “the horrible and despicable acts” committed against her.
“It took a lot of courage for her to come into a courtroom and testify in excruciating detail about the most traumatic event of her life,” said McCarthy after the trial.
In her closing statement, Rotunno insisted the girl lied and made up the rape claim because she was embarrassed about engaging in sex acts with two boys and didn’t want anyone to find out.
“Lies are lies; inconsistencies are inconsistencies. And in a criminal trial, they matter,” said Rotunno, referring to what she said were differences in statements the victim made to friends, her mother, police, medical personnel and during her cross-examination on the witness stand.
McCarthy bristled at that characterization. She said memory lapses are understandable after nearly two years. Recalling and sharing such a horrific experience would be difficult for an adult woman — let alone a teenage girl — but on the key facts, she never wavered, McCarthy said.