Ex-Glenbard West football player on stand says girl consented

A former Glenbard West High School football player charged with raping a Rolling Meadows teen last year testified Wednesday that the girl consented to sex and that police led him to sign an inaccurate statement by implying he could then go home.

Demarco Whitley, 19, took the witness stand in his own defense and claimed the girl, then 15, agreed to have sex with him and his friend and teammate Pierre Washington-Steel in a car in a Rolling Meadows church parking lot on Jan. 29, 2010.

Whitley, who attends the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, testified the girl never told him to stop, never cried or screamed, and never tried to leave the car, which was unlocked, he said.

At the police station, after officers picked him up at his school on Feb. 8, 2011, officers “just came at me,” said Whitley, who claimed detectives rejected his explanation of what happened that night.

“Anything I would say, they would say: ‘No, that's not right. We know that's not right,'” Whitley said.

He was arrested after a report from the Illinois State Police Crime Lab indicated DNA found at the scene matched Whitley's.

Whitley said police took his phone, waited hours before letting him call his parents and pressured him to sign a statement with their version of events.

“No matter what I said, I had no win against her,” Whitley said of a Cook County assistant state's attorney who took his statement. He accused her of fabricating statements attributed to him that the girl appeared “hesitant” or “reluctant” to participate.

Whitley testified that he also believed if he cooperated, he could go home.

“She told me to sign the papers,” Whitley said. “She said if I signed the papers I could go home.”

Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Maria McCarthy doubted the credibility of that statement.

“You thought if you signed a statement that you had sex with a girl against her will, you'd go home?” McCarthy said.

“Correct,” Whitley said.

The defendant's version of events differed markedly from that of the teenage girl's, who testified earlier that Washington-Steel, an acquaintance, called her about 4:30 p.m. that evening and asked her to hang out with him and Whitley, whom he referred to as his “cousin,” although they are not related.

The girl testified that after they picked her up, Washington-Steel asked her to have sex with Whitley. After she refused, she said the two boys — who she said were bigger and stronger than her — forced her to perform sex acts against her will.

Prosecutors named Washington-Steel a deceased co-offender. He and Whitley were involved in a car crash about 80 minutes after the alleged assault, and Washington-Steel died from his injuries several days later.

Whitley could face between four and 15 years in prison if convicted. Probation is also an option.

Closing arguments are expected today.

Earlier on Wednesday, Cook County Judge Thomas Fecarotta denied a motion by Whitley's attorney for a directed finding of not guilty.

The girl “knew why she was getting in the car that day,” said Whitley's attorney, Donna Rotunno, who insisted prosecutors failed to meet their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In arguing for the not-guilty finding, she referred to what she suggested were discrepancies in statements the girl made to police, hospital personnel and in court.

The girl never told police Washington-Steel had been to her house previously and asked her for sex, which she refused, Rotunno said. Additionally, said Rotunno, the girl's friend testified the girl said she was going to the movies with the boys. In statements to the court and others, the girl said they were going out driving or just hanging out, Rotunno said.

“She's not even truthful about where she's going,” Rotunno said in her attempt to discredit the girl.

Rotunno stated that the girl easily answered prosecutors' questions about the alleged assault, but on cross examination she frequently answered that she didn't know or didn't remember. Lastly, Rotunno stated that the absence of bruises, scrapes or visible injuries suggested the girl was not forced to do anything.

McCarthy reminded the court that the girl testified that Washington-Steel held her down and complained of neck pain to hospital staff.

“Every act that was perpetrated on (the girl) in that car was by force,” McCarthy said.

No one can blame the girl for mixing up certain details nearly two years after the attack, McCarthy said, suggesting that time may have diminished some of the girl's memories, but not all of them.

“What will always be vivid in her mind are the sexual acts perpetrated upon her,” McCarthy said.