Kildeer man acquitted of rape, pleads guilty to drug charge

A Lake County judge found Ryan Burke not guilty of rape Friday, saying there were too many inconsistencies in the case against him.

After Associate Judge George Bridges announced his decision, the Kildeer man pleaded guilty to a single drug charge. All other charges against him were dropped.

The case stemmed from charges made by a woman who testified during Burke's trial this week she had been raped by Burke during a May 30, 2006 party at his house in the 2100 block of Valley Drive.

The woman testified she consumed two drinks before arriving at the house with her then-boyfried, and had a beer and two or three shots of an alcohol she could not identify, some of which were served by Burke. She said she smoked some marijuana, then experienced blackouts, and awoke to find herself being raped by Burke.

Police found a vial of the date rape drug GHB, along with other drugs, inside Burke's house and suspected it may have been the source of her blackouts.

Burke, 30, denied assaulting the woman, claimed other people at his house that night saw her having sex with her boyfriend, and said any drugs found in his house were brought there by other people.

Bridges said the case against Burke was rife with contradictions, but expressed sympathy for the woman.

"Unfortunately, things tend to go wrong when you combine alcohol and drugs," he said. "Here we have a case where a young woman became so intoxicated that she put herself in a position to become a victim."

But Bridges said he was troubled by the fact no toxicology test was done that could have established the woman was drugged.

He also said the version of events the woman told to hospital personnel and police that night was different in many ways from her testimony this week.

Along with the GHB, police found small amounts of ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines and methamphetamine at Burke's house.

He pleaded guilty to possession of the amphetamines after Bridges found him not guilty of aggravated criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual assault.

In exchange for the plea, Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Bolling Haxall dropped the remaining drug charges against Burke.

Bridges placed Burke on probation for two years and fined him $600 on the drug charges.

Had he been convicted of the rape charges, Burke could have faced up to 30 years in prison.