Former Maywood cop: 'I never forced myself on her'
The former Maywood police officer accused of sexually assaulting a woman in March 2012 in a Villa Park hotel room maintained Thursday, sometimes in graphic detail, that the sexual encounter was consensual.
Deon Sams faces between 10 and 60 years in prison if found guilty of all the criminal sexual assault and official misconduct charges he is facing.
He was put on paid administrative leave on April 5, 2012, pending the outcome of the investigation and resigned from the Maywood Police Department one week later on April 12, 2012.
On Thursday, Sams testified he picked up the 36-year-old Bellwood woman in his Maywood police SUV shortly after 2 a.m. on March 24, 2012, and drove her to her brother's nearby house because she was locked out of her home for the night.
The woman, along with an Oak Brook police officer, testified previously that she had been arrested and charged with DUI in Oak Brook at 12:28 a.m. that day after her blood alcohol content level registered .186 - more than twice the legal limit.
A short time later, the woman's boyfriend picked her up from the police station and drove her home. Angry with her for getting the DUI, she testified he dropped her off outside her home and sped away.
After no one answered at the home, Sams drove her to a local motel and gave her $100 for a room. On the drive to the hotel, Sams said the woman complimented his appearance, flirted with him and the two talked about giving each other massages.
When asked if he thought he would have sex with the woman at the hotel, Sams said he did.
"I thought it might go that way, yeah," he testified. "I hoped she'd get a room and I could return later, on my lunch hour."
With no vacancy at the hotel, the woman returned to the police SUV and Sams drove to the Maywood police station. Once there, the woman got into Sam's personal car as Sams attended to another police call.
Some time later, Sams said he returned to the police department, got in his personal vehicle and drove the woman to a hotel in the 0-10 block of West Roosevelt Road in Villa Park.
Once in the room, Sams said the two had a consensual sexual encounter.
"I never forced myself on her," Sams said. "I never forced myself. She was awake the whole time and she never said no."
The woman, however, testified that once in the room she "dozed off" and when she woke, Sams was sexually assaulting her. She dozed off again and then woke a second time.
"I next remember him on top of me," she said. "It felt like he took something away from me."
Assistant State's Attorney Ann Celine O'Hallaren said those words summed up the entire case against Sams.
"Those are the honest words of a woman who was violated by someone she should have been able to trust," O'Hallaren said during Thursday's closing arguments.
The woman said that after the encounter she went to the washroom to clean up and Sams, back in his uniform, left. After he departed, she locked the door and crawled back in bed to "sleep it off, forget it had happened.
Around 8 a.m. she woke and said she began searching the room for clues about where she was so she could get a ride home. She later underwent a sexual assault exam at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago.
Sams' attorney, Deputy Chief Public Defender Brian Jacobs, argued during closing arguments that the woman lied about the whole encounter to provide an alibi for the hickeys Sams left on her neck, her reason for spending the night in a hotel and for being late to work the next day.
"She has an amazing amount of memory for someone the state says couldn't give consent. Most importantly, she doesn't remember any details from the exact moment this is happening," Jacobs said. "(The woman) is lying. Plain and simple."
Jacobs said after they had sex, Sams and the woman exchanged phone numbers and Sams promised to pick her up in the morning, after his 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift was over. But he never called or showed up. He did, however, go out to his car, get his phone charger and charge the woman's cellphone.
"Why, after just raping someone, would that person go get a charger so the other person could charge her phone and call someone?" Jacobs asked.
Judge George Bakalis will rule on the case at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 6 in courtroom 4006.