Elgin man not guilty of post-prom rape charge

An accused rapist walked out of the Kane County jail a free man last week after jurors found him not guilty of assaulting an Elgin teen at a post-prom party two years ago.

Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but prosecutors couldn't introduce at trial that the 39-year-old defendant is a sex offender convicted of trying to rape a 9-year-old relative in 1998.

Mathew Schue was acquitted of two Class 1 felony counts of criminal sexual assault in the May 3, 2008, incident at his sister's home in Elgin.

Defense attorney D.J. Tegeler said Schue, of Elgin, had acquired booze for a bonfire party that drew about 20 young adults from the Larkin High School prom.

He said his client was wrongly accused of rape after having "consensual sex" with an 18-year-old woman in one of three tents set up in the backyard, all while Schue's fiancee was inside the home. "Even I don't like my client," Tegeler told jurors in closing arguments. "But being a pig and a jerk and despicable is not a crime."

Assistant Kane County State's Attorney Pam Monaco said the teen was evaluated at the hospital after she awoke in the tent to find Schue having intercourse with her and pushed him off.

The accuser spent more than three hours on the stand last week, detailing how Schue kissed her without permission and grew increasingly drunk, while she remained "intoxicated but coherent," the night of the party.

Monaco said the teen was reluctant to come forward at first, because she had been friendly with Schue's family, but later was determined to see Schue put behind bars. "She was credible and vested in the process but, obviously, the system failed," Monaco said. "We would do it all over again. We couldn't just let a sex offender go."

According to court records, Schue pleaded guilty to attempted predatory criminal sexual assault in Kane County after molesting a 9-year-old relative in 1998.

It was information prosecutors were unable to introduce as evidence after Schue's accuser in the earlier case refused to testify.

Either way, Tegeler said, prosecutors did not have the physical evidence to meet their burden of proving Schue forced himself on the woman.

"The state didn't prove that she did not consent," he said.

The older case: Schue was sentenced to six years and five months in prison in exchange for a guilty plea in the 1998 case.

Prosecutors said Schue was about to rape the child when his wife came home. He ordered the girl into a closet, where the mother later found her hiding with her underwear pulled down.

Schue also has prior convictions for theft and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, records show.

In all, he spent about 21 months in the county jail while awaiting trial in the latest case.

Had he been convicted, he could have been sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.